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Simply, through last week, there is no team playing better in the East Bay Athletic League girls’ volleyball than Amador Valley.
Going back to Oct. 1, the Dons have put together 10 consecutive wins, going from 10-8 to 20-8 overall in the season.
Included in those wins were a sweep of the unbeaten Carondelet, and last week a 3-2 win over San Ramon Valley, another powerhouse in a match where they were down 2-0.
The Dons were set to face first-place Foothill on Tuesday, with results pending. The Falcons beat the Dons 3-0 back on Sept. 26. It was the last match Amador lost.
During last week, Amador beat Livermore 3-2, then had the epic match with San Ramon Valley.
Going into the match at SRV, the Wolves were 22-5 in the season. The final score was 15-25, 22-25, 25-19, 30-28 and 15-13.
“It was one of the grittiest wins I’ve been a part of in 20 years of coaching,” Amador coach Jacky Yao said. “The girls never gave up. Losing the first two sets in the ways we lost, in addition to being down 17-10 in the third, would have been an early night for most teams. The girls fought and battled all night long. Defense and serve-receive cleaned up after the first set, and the effort from our outsides made a huge difference down the stretch of each set.”
The Dons got big nights from their outside hitters.
Maddi Huddleston and Hayden Moe provided a huge spark on the left pin as well as roaming the backcourt all evening. Huddleston had 15 kills as well as 26 digs while Moe had a 70% perfect pass rating with zero service errors.
Kaitlyn Carlock fired up defense and the serve-receive. Mirudhula Muruganandham hit .286, added three blocks and four digs from the right side. Charlotte Kelly led both sides with 25 kills, and had the game-winner in the fifth set.
Sydney Goldstein, in a matchup of 6-foot-plus middles, led the Dons with seven blocks, most coming in match defining moments.
Lulu Malakhova had 51 assists on the night combined with nine digs. The energy from the bench was instrumental in the comeback.
Foothill girls’ volleyball
Foothill kept a one-game lead over Amador for the top seed out of the Valley Division with sweeps over Dublin and Livermore last week.
In the 25-22, 25-9, 25-15 win over Dublin, the highlights came from Kaycie Burdick (17 kills, 10 digs, 4 aces), Lulu Hoenninger (7 kills, 5 blocks), Olivia So (12 service points, 11 digs) and Sophia Burdick (9 kills, 1 block).
In the 25-12, 25-11, 25-9 win over Livermore, the top play came from Brooke Stedman (21 assists, 3 kills), Kait Vogel (14 service points with 6 aces, 8 kills), Tanvi Powar (9 service points with 5 aces, 4 digs) and Sahej Toor (3 kills, 1 block).
Amador girls’ water polo
The Dons fell 18-8 to Monte Vista. Susan Swyers and Regan Braga each scored three goals, and Addi Drain and Zahra Alami scored one each to round out the scoring.
Postseason coming
Just some basic information as the North Coast Section playoffs are approaching.
Volleyball gets going first with Oct. 29-30, and Nov. 2, 6 and 9 as the dates. The dates for the CIF NorCal playoffs are Nov. 12-19.
Girls’ golf is Nov. 4 at Paradise Valley in Fairfield. The NorCal tournament is Nov. 11 at Berkeley Country Club in El Cerrito, and CIF State is Nov. 20 at the San Gabriel Country Club.
The football postseason starts the weekend of Nov. 15, with the finals set for the weekend of Nov. 29. NorCal is played on the weekend of Dec. 6, with the CIF Bowl games the weekend of Dec. 12.
NCS cross country is set for Nov. 23 in Hayward, with the CIF State meet set for Nov. 30 at Woodward Park in Fresno.
Editor’s note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for Embarcadero Media Foundation’s East Bay Division. To contact him about his Pleasanton Preps column, email acesmag@aol.com.
