The Mount Madonna School girls volleyball team won twice Saturday night.
First, the Hawks took care of business on their home court high above Watsonville, rallying for a four-set, 20-25, 25-23, 25-21, 25-14, win over Escalon in the second round of the CIF Northern California Division V playoffs. Then, they won a chance to perform in front of their home crowd a second time in the regional semifinals when No. 7 Clear Lake upset No. 2 Durham in another NorCal second-round match.
“We’re very pumped,” coach Erin Mitchell said.
Mount Madonna, the No. 3 seed, will host Clear Lake on Tuesday at 7 p.m. It marks the first time the Hawks have reached the NorCal semifinals since they lost to eventual champion Branson in the NorCal final in 2009 — two years after winning the state title. It’s also the first time any Santa Cruz County team has gotten that far since Soquel lost in the D-IV NorCal final in 2011.
The Hawks were the only D-V team to receive a first-round bye, and Mitchell said that was more of a bust than a boon for her team.
“They aced us a few times right off the bat,” she said. “Having that break, it was kind of a curse. We haven’t had competition in over a week.”
Mount Madonna started to gain traction against No. 11-seeded Escalon in the second set, however. And, after tying the score at 23-all, the Hawks managed to salvage a key set victory.
“Once we got to 1-1,” Mitchell said, “we were like, ‘We can do this now.’”
And they did, improving with each passing set.
Mara Peruzzi led the way with a standout all-around match. She recorded a team-high 20 kills and 13 digs. Paola Jacobs added 19 kills on .429 hitting as well as four aces and eight digs. Setter Indigo Kelly made 40 assists and Imogen Cochran added five.
With the win, the Hawks, the fifth-place finisher in the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League and the last county team left standing, improve to 16-11 overall.
Mitchell said she knows very little about Clear Lake (29-6), a North Coast Section quarterfinalist that defeated Durham 3-1. She knows the Cardinals hale from Lakeport, near Ukiah and close to where she spent her childhood, and that they’ll be saving her team a trip to the Chico area on a school day.
“I know the area but I haven’t heard anting about their team,” she said of Clear Lake. “There could be some footage online, but to be honest I think the seeding for our bracket is so interesting and there are so many upsets, we’re going to prepare for the worst/best.”
She added, “We’re going to see what we can do on our home court.”
