ESPNHS Volleyball

By Walter Villa

LAS VEGAS, Nev. – If you assumed Assumption is the only strong team in Kentucky, you’d be wrong.

Assumption (Louisville, Ky.) won the Durango Fall Classic on Saturday night, but the Rockets’ two state mates at the tournament also had impressive showings.

Sacred Heart (Louisville, Ky.) won the silver championship Saturday, rallying to beat Torrey Pines (San Diego, Calif.), 22-25, 25-14, 25-21. The silver title was good for an overall finish of ninth place.

The third Kentucky team at Durango this weekend was Notre Dame Academy (Park Hills, Ky.), and the Pandas finished a respectable 15^th out of 48.

All three Kentucky teams entered the tournament ranked in the POWERADE FAB 50, with Assumption 13^th, Sacred Heart 35^thand Notre Dame 46^th.

The trio combined to go 9-0 on Friday and 17-4 for the weekend, with three of the losses charged to Notre Dame (4-3). Assumption went 7-0, and Sacred Heart rolled to a 6-1 record in Vegas.

“We’ve been clicking the last couple of weeks or so,” Sacred Heart coach Eric Garvey said. “This was a continuation of us playing well.”

Sacred Heart’s only loss in Vegas was Saturday morning in a round of 16 game against Xavier (Phoenix, Ariz.), 25-18, 25-23. But Garvey’s team regrouped and won three straight, beating Pleasant Grove (Pleasant Grove, Utah), Edison (Huntington Beach, Calif.) and Torrey Pines.

Sacred Heart, which lost just three sets in its seven matches, has another big test on Sept. 25 at Assumption.

“They’re tough,” Garvey said of Assumption. “Their two setters, Katie George and Alexa Filley, are amazing.”

California shows its depth
None of them won the top prize, but three California schools finished in the top four. Los Alamitos (Los Alamitos, Calif.) came in second, followed by Marymount (Los Angeles, Calif.) and La Costa Canyon (Carlsbad, Calif.).

Los Alamitos, which entered the tournament ranked seventh in the POWERADE FAB 50 – highest among all the teams at Durango – is now 12-1. It had not lost a set this season until Saturday’s semifinals, when it gave up a 24-21 lead to Marymount.

Los Alamitos came back to beat Marymount but could not sustain that momentum against Assumption.

Champs again, sort of
Harvard-Westlake (North Hollywood, Calif.), which won the 2010 Durango Fall Classic, failed to repeat this year, losing in Friday’s play-in game to Xavier.

But Harvard-Westlake showed character in rebounding to win the competition division championship, good for an overall finish of 25^th.

No Ma’a for Kamehameha
Misty Ma’a, a talented 6-foot-1 outside hitter, missed the last three matches for Kamehameha (Honolulu, Hawaii) after hurting her right arm diving for a ball.

Ma’a, showing a bruise on her right forearm, appeared to be in pain, although no tests had yet been taken to determine the severity of the injury.

“It’s frustrating to sit out matches,” said Ma’a, who said she did not think the injury was serious.

Even without Ma’a, Kamehameha was impressive, finishing sixth. The Warriors lost a heartbreaker in the quarterfinals, falling 27-25, 25-23 to La Costa Canyon.

Green Valley leads Vegas teams
Green Valley (Henderson, Nev.), which had a big showing on Friday, came in 28^th, the highest finish for a Vegas-area team in this year’s tournament.

Host Durango came in 45^th, just ahead of fellow Vegas-area schools Shadow Ridge (Las Vegas, Nev.), Coronado (Henderson, Nev.) and Foothill (Henderson, Nev.).

By Walter Villa

LAS VEGAS, Nev. -- Green Valley (Henderson, Nev.) exceeded expectations on Friday, showing that Las Vegas-area teams can compete with some of the nation’s elite.

Green Valley, seeded 32nd in this weekend’s 48-team Durango Fall Classic, stunned the tournament’s top overall seed, Marymount (Los Angeles, Calif.) with a 25-23 first-set win. Marymount went on to win the next two sets, 25-19, 25-15.

Because Green Valley finished second to Marymount in its pool, the Gators qualified for a play-in game and the chance to qualify for Saturday’s Sweet 16 round.

Green Valley got another tough draw: La Costa Canyon (Carlsbad, Calif.), which finished in second place at Durango last year.

Green Valley again gave the favorites a jolt, beating La Costa Canyon, 25-21 in the first set before losing 25-11, 25-11.

“It was a great night for Green Valley and a great night for Las Vegas volleyball,” Gators coach Erin Hill said, alluding to the fact that Vegas teams have never won Durango and have lately not even been very competitive. “I’m thrilled with how we played. We’re young, but we showed up.”

Hill, who was there when Green Valley opened in 1991, is the only coach in school history. She welcomed 140 girls to her very first practice and worked some minor miracles early, winning state titles in 1993, ’95, ’96 and ’01.

No other Vegas-area team has won more Class 4A state titles in girls volleyball. But since the Gators’ golden start, four new schools have opened that have taken enrollment away from Green Valley.

“We have good players in Las Vegas – girls who have gone on to compete at the Division I level,” Hill said. “They just don’t all play for the same high school.”

Still, the Gators have remained a force. Last year, they finished 29-9 and lost in the state final for the second year in a row. The Gators graduated five players from that team.

This season’s team returns four starters: 5-9 junior setter Jenna Swaffer, 5-11 junior outside hitter Carly Schiess, 5-10 sophomore outside hitter Nikki Drost and 5-4 senior libero Alexa Drost.

They also have right-side hitter Sommer King, a 5-9 junior who has emerged this season as an underrated force, and 6-0 junior middle hitter Julie Dramise, who came up big on Friday.

Tournament is on the rise

The Durango Fall Classic started with 16 teams in 1995, quickly grew to 32 schools and now sits at 48.

Bob Kelly, who created the tournament and still runs it, said he is most proud of two things connected with his event: the geographical diversity of the teams and the element of surprise.

The diversity is evident when you see that there are teams from 10 states -- including Alaska and Hawaii -- and Canada.

As for the surprise factor, Kelly said every year seems to produce an unranked team that emerges in Las Vegas. Last year, it was Harvard-Westlake (North Hollywood, Calif.), which shocked many experts by winning the tournament.

Two years ago, it was Newport Harbor (Newport Beach, Calif.), which finished second. They were unranked before the tournament started but finished the year No. 15.

“My gut feeling is that there will be a team from California that surprises again this year,” Kelly said. “There are a lot of outstanding teams out there.”

A hungry player

Senior outside hitter Misty Ma’a of Kamehameha (Honolulu, Hawaii) is making her fourth straight trip to Vegas, and she has found her favorite place to eat. “The buffet at the Rio Hotel,” she said. “It’s the highlight of my life -- the best food I have ever seen. We starve ourselves for months so we can eat there.”

By Walter Villa

There is such a thing as being too good a host, and that, in essence, is what has happened to Las Vegas girls volleyball teams at the annual power-packed Durango Fall Classic.

No Nevada team has won the tournament, which returns to Las Vegas for the 17th year this Friday and Saturday.

Last year, the best finish for a Vegas-area school was by Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas, Nev.), which came in 23rd in the 48-team tournament.


The other area teams were Centennial (Las Vegas, Nev.), which finished 36th; Green Valley (Henderson, Nev.) at 37th; Silverado (Las Vegas, Nev.) at 43rd; Coronado (Henderson, Nev.) at 45th; Shadow Ridge (Las Vegas, Nev.) at 46th; Foothill (Henderson, Nev.) at 47th; and host Durango (Las Vegas, Nev.), which finished in last place.

The best ever finish by a Vegas team was in 2003, when Durango placed fifth under coach Bob Kelly, who now serves only as tournament director.

“Usually a good Vegas team will finish between 17th and 32nd,” Kelly said. “They rarely get into championship contention.”

That’s OK, according to Bishop Gorman coach Ed Van Meetren, who said where you finish this week is not the only thing that matters.

“All we are looking to do is get better coming out of it,” said Van Meetren, who returns four starters from a 31-9 team that made the 2010 state semifinals.

Van Meetren said he is concerned about his team because his star setter, Kylee Chun, is recovering from a concussion and is questionable for the tournament.

Van Meetren said Green Valley is probably the top team in Vegas at the moment. The Gators return four starters from a 29-9 team that lost in the Class 4A state final for the second year in a row.

“They are well coached,” he said. “I just don’t know if they have enough size to compete against the big teams coming here.”

Among those “big teams” are 11 that are nationally ranked.

Among the other Vegas teams entered, Centennial returns five starters from a 29-8 club and Coronado has two starters back from a 28-6 squad.

Four other Vegas teams are entered in this year’s tournament: Bonanza, which went 15-10 a year ago; Shadow Ridge (17-16 in 2010); Foothill (13-18 last year); Durango (9-23 in 2010).

Hawaii team set for Vegas
While the Vegas teams are playing, virtually, in their backyards, Kamehameha (Honolulu, Hawaii) is making a 4,000-mile trip to compete against the elite field.

“It’s a great bonding trip for us,” said Kamehameha senior Chelsey Keoho, a 5-foot-2 libero who has committed to Colorado.

“I remember the first time I came here as a sophomore. I was a bit intimidated because the girls we played against were so tall and jumped higher. I remember all these big, tall seniors trying to kill me with the ball.”

Leigh Andrew recovering
Leigh Andrew, a 6-0 left side hitter at Cardinal Gibbons (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.), has missed the start of the season due to mononucleosis. But the North Carolina recruit is expected to return to action later this week.

In mid-August, Andrew said she started feeling tired “for no reason.” A blood test finally confirmed she had mono, and doctors told her to refrain from playing sports for one month or she’d be risking a ruptured spleen.

Andrew has made peace with her upcoming time on the sidelines.

“The positive is that this could have happened two months from now, which would have kept me from the playoffs,” she said. “At least this way, my goal is still on – winning state.”