Volleyball reaches round two in CIF playoffs

Slideshow, Sports — By Suhauna '14 on January 12, 2012 4:14 pm

This year the Varsity Volleyball team made it to the second round of southern California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) playoffs for the first time in several years due largely to the hard work and dedication of their new coach, Shari Sakamoto. Although the team eventually lost to Corona Del Mar High School on Nov. 10, many student athletes said they feel making it this far in CIF was an impressive feat.

On Nov. 9, the Varsity Volleyball team played their first playoff match in the Gymnasium against Arroyo Grande High School. The team won the first game but handed the second and third over to the Eagles. The fourth game was a nail-biter, and the scores stayed close throughout, but the Mustangs pulled through and won it 25-22. They then went on win to the fifth deciding game, achieving the first ever playoff victory for Mustang Varsity Volleyball in Division 1A. (The team moved to Division 1A in 2005.)

In CIF playoffs, a team must keep winning games to continue advancing. In their second-round playoff game, the Mustangs were matched with Corona Del Mar, a team that went undefeated in the regular season. Corona Del Mar was ultimately defeated in the fifth and final playoff round against Marymount High School.

Sakamoto said that Marlborough could have possibly won more playoff games if the team had not been matched with a strong team like Corona Del Mar so early in the playoffs.

However, Sakamoto said she was satisfied with how far the girls have come this year.

“I’m really quite pleased, but I’m looking forward to building the culture for next year and advancing and moving forward with the program,” she said.

Students on the team also said they were satisfied with how the season played out.

“It was really exciting for all of us, especially for seniors who have been playing for a long time and never made it this far,” Co-Captain Sammy ’12 said.According to many players, Sakamoto’s unwavering dedication was a major factor in their success this year.

“I felt that she took our team more seriously than [our coaches had] in any other year. It was just way more important to her, and she showed us how important it was, too,” Kourtney ’12 said.

Jackie ’14 said Sakamoto has inspired the girls on team to be a lot more committed, particularly concerning everything they worked on during practices. Sakamoto brought in an athletic trainer early on to get the team in shape, and from there she focused on improving the players’ skills.

“She helped us improve our technique, which is what we needed. We played a lot better this year because we played a much faster game, and we learned how to get around the block [which is when one or more players stop the ball before or just after it crosses over the net], and deal with large teams,” Jackie said.

Sakamoto scouted out teams Marlborough would be playing against and videotaped their games beforehand in order to create strategies for the girls to apply when they were playing those teams. Sakamoto said she would look specifically at the opponent’s defense, their physical formation on the court and where certain players tend to hit.

“We played a lot faster and learned how to play more competitively against harder teams and not crumble like we did last year,” Jackie said.

Sakamoto said that although the team had come a long way, she wants to take the volleyball program at Marlborough to an even higher level.

“I want to work on building the culture of the team, meaning building a program where the girls are hardworking and committed, where they want to do well,” she said. “I hope that they want to play volleyball and want to be there because they’re having fun.”