Menlo-Atherton is hoping for a late evening in Orange County on Saturday. Should the second-seeded Bears (30-3) topple No. 1 seed Pitman (43-1) in tonight’s NorCal Division I volleyball final in Turlock, they would advance to Saturday’s state title match at Santiago Canyon College in Orange at 8 p.m. The winner of tonight’s 7 o’clock match plays either Redondo Union-Redondo Beach or Mater Dei-Santa Ana in the Division I final.
Menlo-Atherton swept No. 6 Homestead-Cupertino 25-14, 25-17, 25-23 in Saturday’s Round II match to reach its second NorCal final. The Bears lost to eventual Division I state champ Palo Alto in the NorCal final in 2011.
The Bears will have to bring their pride with them to upset the Pride, led by 6-foot-3 outside hitter Lindsey Vander Weide, who has committed to the University of Oregon. Vander Weide has 421 kills, outdistancing anyone on the team in that category by far. A small consolation for the Bears: Vander Weide is the only player on the Pride roster listed taller than 5-11.
“I know some of their players from club volleyball,” said Menlo-Atherton coach Ron Whitmill, who coaches for Vision Volleyball Club. “They’re very good players. We’ll have our hands full. They’re seeded No. 1 for a reason.”
Whitmill, a 1989 alum of Piedmont Hills-San Jose, knows his club doesn’t have much room for error if it expects to win. However, the pressure should be on the host team.
“Our theme all year long has been our passing and our serving,” Whitmill said. “We want to go in there and beat them in the serve-pass game. When we do that, we have a chance to beat anybody. We haven’t lost a three-out-of-five match all year. We’re confident that we’re going to be tough to beat.”
“We have coaches who can tell us adjustments throughout the match,” Bears outside hitter Leanne Collins said. “We can see what is happening after the first game.”
Against the Mustangs, outside hitter Devon Joos had 15 kills and 14 digs for the Bears. Collins had 15 kills, while Ally Ostrow had 10 kills. Sophomore middle blocker Eliza Grover was the X-factor for the Bears with six kills and 5 1/2 blocks. M-A libero Kaitlin Tavarez had 13 digs, while sophomore setter Kirby Knapp had 42 assists.
In the CCS Division title match at Independence-San Jose on Nov. 22, the Bears defeated the Mustangs in four games.
“We showed improvement and progress from the last time we played them,” Collins said. “We read our adjustments on blocking and defense well.”
“We played better than we did in the CCS title match,” Whitmill said. “Both teams were a bit nervous when we played at Independence. Grover’s blocking made a big difference. It slowed them down. Our sophomores all played well, passing, defense, serving.”
Win or lose, Whitmill said he’ll be satisfied with the season. The Bears are one victory short of the school’s single-season win record set in 2011.
“What I’ve been proud of is the girls have played a good, quality level of volleyball,” Whitmill said. “If we get beat because the team is better than us, it’s something we can live with. We’ve done a good job of getting the most out of the personnel we’ve had, especially in the second half of the season. We want to not regret anything.”
Email John Reid at [email protected]; follow him at twitter.com/dailynewsjohn.
