Same winning results for new-look Mercy-Burlingame

The trio is responding nicely to Pele’s new uptempo system, that features a 6-2 offense with a first-year varsity setter joining returning senior Clare O’Brien to drive the ship. The results were on display Thursday as Mercy (4-1) traveled to Carlmont for a four-set victory 25-14, 23-25, 25-19, 25-18 in non-league play.

“We’re trying to pick up the pace with them,” Pele said. “We’re trying to pick up the tempo on our side. We really like to run a fast-paced tempo, so we’re trying to give them the tools in order to be successful doing that.”

Pele has been away from high school volleyball for seven years, but touts a resume chock full of success. In four years as head coach at San Francisco Waldorf from 2013-16, she posted a 103-28 record, including back-to-back North Coast Section Division 6 and CIF Division VI Nor Cal regional championships in 2014 and ’15. She also has a slew of coaching experience in the club ranks, including the last three seasons at SF Elite Volleyball Club coaching alongside new Mercy assistant coach Shannon Lee.

What Pele and Lee have inherited from former head varsity coach Ray Sum — who stepped down after three seasons — is plenty of depth in the program. There’s so much depth, that two starting seniors this year in libero Amira Festejo Rivera and setter Lana Trehan were both junior-varsity players last year as juniors. 

“We were pretty stacked on all grade levels, so we made room for other juniors and sophomores on JV,” Trehan said. “That’s what they usually have done.”

The usual suspects fronted Mercy’s win Thursday. Cacao recorded a double-double with a match-high 14 kills and 13 digs, while Ferdinand added 13 kills and three blocks.

But it was the defense of Rivera that set the tone early. With Mercy and Carlmont brawling through several long rallies in the early going, Mercy gained an early 7-3 advantage with Rivera putting her stamp on the point. The senior had two consecutive clutch contacts, first racing up to the net with a knee slide for a bump set to keep the rally going. When Carlmont returned the ball, Rivera had already raced back to the left back spot to execute a diving dig to put the Bears in system for Cacao to chop the block off the left side to score the kill.

Rivera went on to finish with 20 digs.

“I think I just need to hustle,” Rivera said. “Just see the ball and just go for it.”

Hustle is Pele’s calling card. And it showed up in spades in the third set.

Carlmont (1-2) dropped Game 1, but fired back with a back-and-forth win in Game 2. The turnaround was in big part due to outside hitter Calico Przybyszewski making her first appearance in the second set. The senior scored a team-high nine match kills, five of them coming in Game 2.

In Game 3, however, Mercy countered with opposite hitter Isabella Reyes. The sophomore is a natural setter, but was moved to the right side because of Mercy’s depth of setters in O’Brien and Trehan. And it was Reyes who brought an unexpected spark, scoring her first match kill to give the Bears a 4-1 advantage. Mercy went on to open on an 8-1 run, with Reyes scoring three of those points. She’d go on to record seven match kills, five of them in the pivotal third set.

“She’s kind of earning her stripes among the seniors,” Pele said of the sophomore Reyes getting up to speed with the experience Mercy front row. “But she’s right there with them. ... She’s just come in and been great.”

Carlmont, with a new head coach in Sergio Smirnoff and just four returning varsity players, has a similar story to that of Mercy.

Smirnoff has coached at Carlmont for three years, running the freshman team in 2022 and the junior-varsity team last season while his wife Grace was the head varsity coach. Sergio Smirnoff took over the varsity team this year.

“It’s kind of like a brand new roster,” Smirnoff said. “And the good part is, most of them — or, all of them — I coached in freshman and JV, and we had great results in the last two years.”

Carlmont was coming off a win over Mercy during last year’s non-league schedule. This year, the Scots wanted to continue facing private school opponents to sharpen its chops for Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division play, with Carlmont winning its last league championship in 2006.

“We’ve been hearing ... the other public schools, they’ve been playing high-level private schools,” Smirnoff said. “So, we try to play at that level. We kind of demonstrated today we can do it. Maybe not ... for all the sets ... but we took [one] set from them. Then we kind of faded a little bit.”

Carlmont struggled with unforced errors early, but righted the ship as the match wore on. The Scots committed 33 field errors, 23 of them over the first two sets. Junior outside hitter Brooke Toomasson balanced the attack with six kills, while senior opposite Kianna Young added five.