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One of my favorite sayings regarding sports has always been, “Great teams don’t have to be great all the time, just when they need to be.”
Such was the case for the Foothill girls’ volleyball team this year. The Falcons struggled early in the season, at one point standing just 6-3, which for Foothill volleyball is struggling.
After losing to San Ramon Valley and Carondelet early in East Bay Athletic League play, the Falcons stood just 3-2, once again, not where you usually find the Falcons.
But they kept plugging away and at one point they were 18-8 overall, and their 6-2 mark in the Valley Division was good enough for the top spot.
That came after a tournament where they lost their last two games.
But with a coach like Dusty Collins (one of the best coaches I have seen in any high school sport over the last 40 years) and some very good players, you knew the Falcons would be there at the end.
This past week showed they are a great team, strutting their stuff at the right time.
First up in the EBAL regular season finale against Amador Valley, the Falcons ended the Dons’ 10-game winning streak, winning 3-1 against an Amador team that had beaten very strong Carondelet and San Ramon Valley teams in the last two weeks.
Next came the EBAL playoff semifinals where they hosted Carondelet, a team they lost 3-2 against in league. The Cougars took the first two sets and led 18-13 in the third set.
This was where the great team kicked in.
Foothill rallied to take the set 26-24 to trail 2-1 heading into the fourth. A 25-19 win in the next set, and a fifth game final of 15-10 sent the Falcons to the title match.
In the finals, San Ramon Valley jumped out to a seemingly out-of-reach 23-17 lead, but Foothill dug in and rallied for a 26-24 win.
The Wolves took the next two sets to lead 2-1, but the Falcons rallied again, taking the final two sets 25-13, 15-8 to win the EBAL title for the second straight year.
Next up comes the North Coast Section playoffs where the Falcons wound up seeded fourth in the Open Division. The host No. 5 Redwood in the first round Wednesday night.
A win there would send them to the semifinals at top-seeded Branson — a team that dismissed the Falcons 3-0 in their first match of the season.
It would be a tall order to beat Branson, but with players like Kaycie Burdick, Paige Nelson, Kait Vogel, Lulu Hoenninger, Sophia Burdick and Olivia So, they are not a team to be counted out.
The EBAL is sending five other teams into the NCS playoffs.
Joining Foothill in the Open Division is No. 6-seeded Carondelet, who plays at No. 3 seed James Logan.
In Division I play, San Ramon Valley was the top seed and will have a first-round bye. In the same half of the bracket, No. 5 Amador Valley will host No. 12 Petaluma. The two sides would need to win two games before they meet in the semifinals.
In the bottom half of the bracket, Monte Vista is the No. 7 seed and hosts No. 10 Northgate in the first round. California rounds out the EBAL participation in the playoffs with the No. 14 seed and travels to face No. 3 Tamalpais in the first round. As with the top, the EBAL teams would need to win two in a row to face in the semifinals.
Amador football picks up surprise win
The Dons got an unexpected win last week when El Cerrito was forced to forfeit five games where the team used ineligible players.
El Cerrito beat Amador 38-16 to open the season.
We are looking into the story, as former Foothill assistant principal Malcolm Norrington is now the principal of El Cerrito.
What has been confirmed is the investigation of the players was initiated by the West Contra Costa Unified School District, not the school.
El Cerrito was 6-1 with the lone loss coming to De La Salle. The Gauchos are now 1-6 but still in the hunt for the NCS playoffs.
Amador Valley’s pick up of the win leaves them at 5-3, making the Dons eligible for the NCS playoffs. Check back here next week for updates.
Editor’s note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for the Pleasanton Weekly. This column originally appeared in Tri-Valley Preps Playbook, a weekly sports e-newsletter published by Embarcadero Media Foundation.
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