Summit Shasta blasts past Nueva in CCS volleyball opener

An emerging program in the small school arena, Summit Shasta has appeared in each of the five postseasons since the program joined the CCS in 2017, including a trip to the Division V finals last year. Despite finishing as runners-up in 2021, the Black Bears still qualified for the CIF State Volleyball Championships. And head coach Gil Gilberstadt said the team has its sights on returning.

“They’re already thinking ahead where … if we go to state, that’s where the higher caliber is going to come in and kick in,” Gilberstadt said. “So, their level is up there. They want to play at that level.”

Lehauli announced her team’s presence with authority in Tuesday’s CCS quarterfinal, supplying the No. 2-seed Black Bears with a loud barrage off the left side. The 5-10 outside hitter worked in rotation with junior Lauren Villareal, who rotated into the front to add nine kills, while balancing with Lehauli to keep Summit locked and loaded off the left pin in every rotation.

“She’s awesome,” Gilberstadt said of Lehauli, while admitting the powerful freshman sometimes doesn’t know her own strength. “She’s great. She did very well. She’s very mature. I’ve got to hand it to her, she’s playing at a high caliber. She’s just playing hard.”

For No. 7 Nueva — having now fallen three times to Summit this season, and five straight times dating back to 2021 — Tuesday’s quarterfinal was an especially tough draw. Not only have the Mavericks been without star senior Isabella Yalif since Sept. 28 when she sprained her knee in a match against Design Tech, the team was also missing senior outside hitter Emma Zhao.

This left the young Emma Zwaanstra to try and fill the void, and Nueva’s sophomore was, at times, spectacular in moving from opposite hitter to the left side. Zwaanstra supplied most of the Mavericks’ offense with a team-high five kills and added a block while digging up a storm in the back row.

“She’s just been killing it,” Nueva senior Riley Sze said of her first-year varsity teammate. “Over the course of the season, she’s just grown so much more confident, and is such a great addition to our team.”

Summit Shasta, with 17 players on roster, simply has too much depth, and didn’t have a drop-off at any position, no matter how deep the rotation of substitutions.

“We have more depth in our defense,” Gilberstadt said. “We have more depth in our middles and outsides and right sides. So, we can switch girls around. … We have four setters, and actually a fifth … if we really need to.”

As a testament to Summit’s depth, senior setter Milise Havili proved a versatile weapon. This was apparent in the third set, when she moved to an attacking role and scored three kills in the middle game, while adding three aces from the service line.

“We do a changeup every once in a while to see their versatility, where they can play,” Gilberstadt said. “We have ways to move things around if things don’t turn out right.”

But everything was going right for the Black Bears, who put Nueva on its heels from the outset with its superb serving chops. Summit recorded 17 aces as a team, paced by libero Zoey Dea and setter Cecilia Chow, who totaled five aces apiece.

Summit’s depth is as fluid as it is extraordinary, though, a product of its players buying in to the team concept.

“We’re all friends and when others get more playing time than other people, we just cheer them on,” Lehauli said. “We just keep it positive throughout our team.”

Nueva (13-12) put up a fight early in Game 3, jumping out to an 8-7 lead on a service ace by freshman Sakura Tsutsui. The Mavericks pushed the lead to 9-7 on a kill by junior outside hitter Kaila Ehrlich. But Summit closed the gap, tying it 9-9 with an ace by senior Chloe Young at the start of an 8-1 run. The Black Bears closed it out with a run of aces, as Dea fired three in a row to up the lead to 21-12, and Lehauli closed out the match with back-to-back aces.

Nueva — after joining the CCS in 2016 — finishes its sixth consecutive season with a winning record. The Mavericks settled for third place in the PSAL Bay Division this year, something of a moral victory after the loss of Yalif.

“It was tough,” Sze said. “She was our star player, and it was really tough to see her lose her senior season.”

The Maverick’s first-year coach Leo Pasquali — a club coach at Academy Volleyball Club in Redwood City in his first season ever coaching high school volleyball — said he intends to return to Nueva in 2023.

“It was an amazing group, amazing people, amazing girls,” Pasquali said. “Next year, we will have six players … who will leave Nueva. We’ll have six players that can be a good team. Not a good team like this year, but it’s a process. You need to wait, maybe some players are coming for Nueva next year. If you don’t have any other players — you need to improve the players and prepare the players. It’s our job to prepare the players to play.”

Summit Shasta advances to Thursday’s semifinals, and will try for a program-record 30th win in hosting No. 3 Santa Catalina-Monterey at 7:30 p.m.