SUNRISE VOLLEYBALL: Cougars knock off four-time champs for title

No matter what it tried over the years, the Coronado girls volleyball team had been unable to find the kryptonite for Green Valley.

Until this season.

Cali Thompson stuffed the stat sheet with 38 assists, two kills, four aces and four blocks, and Coronado dismantled the four-time defending champion Gators 25-18, 25-11, 25-23 on Friday in the Division I Sunrise Region title match at Legacy.

It is the first region title since 2005 for the Cougars (29-6), who advance to next week’s state tournament at Green Valley.

“We’ve always been hanging around and couldn’t get over the Green Valley hump,” Coronado coach Matt Johnson said. “We knew this year we could get it done. It all kind of came together.”

Green Valley (27-8) will host Sunset Region runner-up Bishop Gorman at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in a state play-in match.

The Gators owned the rivalry recently, winning six straight and 11 of the past 13 meetings before Coronado earned a 3-1 victory on Oct. 14. The Cougars were even more dominant this time.

“Even though we had that (Oct. 14) win under our belt, we talked before the game that we were underdogs,” Johnson said. “Our attitude was we’ve got to go out and take it away from Green Valley, and it paid off. They fought like underdogs in that match.”

Berkeley Oblad led the Cougars with 11 kills, Nikki Jackson finished with eight kills as Coronado’s middle blockers were especially effective. Teammate Brooke Garlick also had eight kills.

“We just didn’t get going. I’m not exactly sure why,” Green Valley coach Erin Hill said. “Their middles were very effective, and our block was slow getting up on it, no doubt. In a championship match, you’ve got to get on that in the first set.”

Nikki Drost led Green Valley with 18 kills and seven digs, and Alley Seidler had 21 assists. But the Gators were unable to find much offense until late in the third set.

In the third set, two aces by Thompson helped the Cougars snag a 16-8 lead before Green Valley rallied. Shanna Olsen had one of her six kills to cut Coronado’s lead to 23-19, but after the Gators staved off four match points, Carolyn Andrulis powered a kill through the block of Julia Carlson and Seidler for the match winner.

Coronado used a 7-0 run early in the first set to take control and jumped out to a 12-4 advantage in the second set as Thompson ended a long rally with a quick tip shot. Garlick then sparked a 5-0 run late in the set to help put it away.

“We lost to them twice in early-season tournaments, and even though it was disappointing we felt if we got them in a best-three-out-of-five match we would be more successful,” Johnson said. “They have a lot of tradition and a lot of pride. We came in respecting their history, but we wanted to make our own history.”