The Campbell Reporter

Sports

Wildcats go on to play for title

B ellarmine College Prep's talented volleyball team swept many opponents this season, but no 3-0 win was more difficult to achieve than its Central Coast Section Division I semifinal victory against a gutsy Leland squad playing without its head coach.

The Chargers, in their first-ever CCS semifinal match, could not prevent Bellarmine from reaching the finals for the eighth time in 12 seasons, but the Blossom Valley Athletic league champions matched the Bells point for point throughout and made the top seed work overtime in the last two games.

Certainly there were excellent plays and dramatic moments in each of the first three CCS semifinal contests on May 10 at the spacious Independence gymnasium in San Jose. In Division II, second seed Aptos needed five games to get past No. 3 Harker, and No. 5 Saratoga troubled No. 1 St. Francis for a couple of games before the Lancers won in four. Then, in the first Division I semifinal, Los Gatos rallied from a seven-point, first-game deficit to claim a surprising sweep over No. 2 seed Homestead.

But, fittingly, the best match turned out to be the last one. Digging and diving all over the gymnasium floor, the Bells and No. 5 Chargers seemed to get better as the match wore on.

After Bellarmine used a six-point run in the first game to move in front 15-11 and spark a 25-20 victory, neither team scored more than three points in a row the rest of the evening.

In game 2, neither team let the other get ahead by more than two points and there were 16 ties, the last at 24-24, after Leland had fought off "game point" three times, before Bellarmine won 26-24.

Then came the best game of the day, and perhaps in CCS history. In a contest that featured 25 ties, the Chargers staved off seven match points before finally succumbing 34-32.

"It was a hard fight, a great one to go out on," said Justin Conmy, Leland's senior setter. "That last game was a lot of fun."

Bellarmine fought off two game points of its own, one with Leland serving at 24-23 and the other at 32-31. In between, the Bells had seven "match point" chances, but Leland refused to quit. Conmy, fellow seniors Jarret Gardner (10 kills), Seth Anderson, Terry Koh and sophomore Jacob Pederson (14 kills) all took turns in prolonging the match with key hits.

After leading early 4-3, Bellarmine did not regain the lead until 16-15. From that point there were 17 ties and no leads larger than one until the Bells scored the final three points. Jeff Stapleton's kill tied the game at 32, then Fred Stahl put the Bells ahead with a fierce block at the net. Finally, senior leader Ricky Bose scored one of his match-high 21 kills.

"I've never seen a match like that," said coach Sam Tate, who along with Tommy Phan filled in on the Leland bench for Jason Hilbert, who was out of town attending to family matters.

"The kids never gave up," Phan said of the Chargers. "Bellarmine really is the best team and does not make many mistakes. We hung tough by limiting our mistakes, good passing and digging everything."

With the win, Bellarmine improved its record to 27-3 and was set to return to Independence on May 13 to battle Los Gatos for the Division I championship.

The Wildcats, seeded No. 3, were seeking their fourth section title. They advanced by knocking off Homestead 26-24, 25-21, 26-24.

The Wildcats, who last won the CCS crown in 2006 against Sacred Heart Cathedral, opened this year's CCS tourney with a five-game win against visiting Westmont, the No. 6 seed, 25-21, 23-25, 25-23, 20-25, 15-11.

Westmont, which finished second to Leland in the BVAL's Mt. Hamilton Division, ended the season with an overall mark of 24-10.

Senior Brandon Beville was the top player, but he had plenty of support from seniors Landon Jones, Taylor Lynch, Travis Jones and Danny Nelson, juniors Keith Nyberg, Josh Reichert, Ian Crosson, Dennis Tracey and Cameron Barnhart and sophomore Scott Bendorf.

Harker (28-7) lost a tough game five, 15-13, to Aptos, after splitting the first four, 25-23, 19-25, 25-20 and 26-28. The Eagles had swept No. 6 seed Monterey in the quarterfinals behind the play of senior Brian McEuen (19 kills).

Other members for coach Dan Molin's youthful squad were senior Joseph Shapiro, juniors Matthew Gehm and Daniel Tien, sophomores Kevin Liu, Rohan Shah, Jeffrey Tan, Eugene Huang, Kevin Fu, Chad Gordon, Lung-Ying Yu and Rohan Chopra and freshman Jacob Chappell.