Girls volleyball: Redwood tops Archie Williams to stay in MCAL title hunt

The MCAL season is building toward a crescendo for the Redwood High girls volleyball team.

With their toughest two matches – against Marin Catholic and Branson – scheduled toward the end of the season, it’s been important for the Giants to not look too far ahead and focus on the task at hand. On Wednesday night, that meant navigating a road game against an Archie Williams team that made it to the MCAL playoffs and a section final last year.

After surviving a battle in the first set, the Giants seized control of the match in the second set and cruised to a 25-23, 25-18, 25-13 victory.

“One of the biggest things was cutting back on our errors,” first-year Redwood coach Diamond Hollis said. “That first game I think on serving alone we lost eight points. Once we cut back on those minimal errors and kept our momentum and got those two- and three-point runs, we were able to play our game and get more comfortable playing our game.”

Neither team was able to gain any separation for the first half of the first set and when a three-point gap was finally established, it was the Peregrine Falcons who held a 14-11 edge.

“They came in with a lot of grit,” Redwood’s Jaden Hendrickson said. “You could tell they really wanted to win that game.”

Redwood (16-4, 4-0 MCAL) immediately responded with an eight-point run, getting a pair of kills from Hendrickson and a pair of aces from Emma McDermott for a 19-14 lead.

Archie Williams (12-4, 2-3) put together a spirited rally to climb back into the set. Reese Fraser had a pair of slick setter dumps on either side of an Elsa Snipes kill to pull the Peregrine Falcons within 24-23.

With everything hinging on the next point, the Peregrine Falcons were called for a net violation and Redwood went ahead 1-0.

“Archie Williams and Redwood are both very emotional teams so obviously we both play at a very high level,” Redwood setter Kaley Mathews said. “It’s just going to come down to who can hold themselves to a higher standard in the game. I do think that net (violation) impacted how they played for the rest of the game because they seemed frustrated. After we saw they were frustrated like that, we just kind of picked them apart.”

Mathews played a big role as Redwood seized control of the match in the second and third sets. Mathews mixed up her setting tendencies to keep the Peregrine Falcons off balance on defense.

“People who have been playing with me for a while know I’m a long-distance setter which means that usually I would be throwing that ball across the court and things like that to the person that’s farthest from me,” Mathews said. “I think they were expecting that from me.”

Instead, Mathews went to a quicker-tempo set, often just nudging it toward her middle blockers who got a lot of clean looks at the court on their swings.

Redwood won six of the first seven points in the second set. Archie Williams pulled within 9-7 but quickly lost contact with the Giants after that. Redwood pulled away early in the third set en route to the victory.

“I’ve always told the girls since Day 1 if we play our offense our way and run it as fast as we can, we will be untouchable,” Hollis said. “That’s been what’s helping us – our speed and that zero-tempo set from Kaley.”

The Giants have been untouchable in MCAL play to this point, sweeping both Archie Williams and Tam in recent games. Redwood faces Marin Catholic next Friday in a match with massive title implications then closes the season with a showdown against Branson the following Friday.

Redwood and MC are both unbeaten in league play while Branson has one loss against MC.

“Obviously, they’re the biggest games of our season,” Hendrickson said. “Last year we were neck and neck with Branson and we lost to MC so we have a lot to prove to them.”

Around the county

• Maddy Andrews had a team-high nine kills as Marin Catholic won a three-set tussle with Tam, 25-22, 25-20, 25-21. Emily Greene added eight kills and 12 digs for MC (15-6, 4-0). Molly Harrison had 32 assists and 12 digs while Tehani Ulufatu had a team-high 15 digs. Malia Parsons led the way for Tam (21-4, 3-2) with 16 digs. Katherine Moriarty had 12 kills, seven digs and three blocks. Natalia Clifford had nine kills and eight digs. Sachi Houser had a team-high four blocks.
• Kate Lane had a team-high 12 kills as Marin Academy surged to a 25-13, 25-16, 25-16 win against Lick-Wilmerding. Tess Etem, Gabby Grujic and Sophia Iannuccillo had six kills apiece for MA (13-10, 5-1, BCL West).
• Terra Linda won the last two sets to hand cross-town rival San Rafael a 25-19, 16-25, 25-16, 25-16 defeat. The Bulldogs were led by Tenley Brovelli’s 32 assists and 11 digs. San Rafael (13-9, 1-4) also got 17 kills and seven digs from Jade Von Doepp.