NOVATO — It was over.
And then it wasn’t.
Mt. Madonna had it.
And then the Hawks didn’t.
“It was crazy,” said San Marin High senior middle blocker Kelsea Bergerson.
A bit of an understatement but on the right track.
Whatever hype was built up before Saturday’s California Interscholastic Federation Northern California Division V championship was absolutely shattered by the time the final match-winning point was struck down.
Emphasis on the final.
San Marin thought it had won its first NorCal title in a sweep but a net call on what would’ve been the championship-clinching point gave Mt. Madonna a sliver of hope, which the Hawks nearly turned into the program’s second-ever regional crown.
In the end, however, the Mustangs (19-11) buckled down and held off the Hawks’ (18-12) improbable comeback with a 25-21, 25-19, 24-26, 18-25, 15-7 heart-pounding victory to corral the NorCal Division V title.
The estimated crowd of 350 packed into the quaint gym just north of San Francisco got its money’s worth and then some.
“We’re disappointed because we wanted to win,” said Mt. Madonna head coach Erin Mitchell, “but we’re not disappointed in our performance at all.”
Mt. Madonna, playing in its first NorCal final since 2009, trailed 2-0 in the match and 17-10 in the third set before mounting its comeback.
Junior outside hitter Mara Peruzzi struck down a couple of kills, senior defensive specialist Aimee Kerr snuck in a pair of aces and the Hawks showed a resiliency that had been lacking in the two previous sets by fighting off three match points.
The third being the biggest.
San Marin appeared to have survived the Hawks’ rally but a late net call held up the celebration on one end of the court and held back tears on the other. A few Mustangs stormed the court from the bench thinking they had won, while the Hawks’ bench had begun to gather its belongings and reminisce on the season.
It turned out it wasn’t over.
The fun was only just starting, as a San Marin error and kills from Mt. Madonna senior middle blocker Gracie Howley and sophomore Paola Jacobs extended the match into a fourth set.
“That whole experience really brought the fire out of me and out of everyone,” said Peruzzi, who had 13 kills. “It really gave us that spark of hope.”
That spark carried over well into the fourth and fifth. After cruising to a match-tying victory in the fourth, Mt. Madonna led 2-0 in the deciding game but San Marin junior outside hitter Liz King zipped down consecutive kills to start a 6-1 run and Bergerson hammered a pair of kills, too, to stake the Mustangs to an 8-4 lead.
San Marin, home crowd turned to 11 and standing over the final three points, never looked back.
“They came roaring back when they knew that the match was on the line and they did a great job of carrying that momentum into the fourth,” said San Marin head coach Mike Mann. “I was able to get my team refocused in the fifth and final set.”
Sophomore outside hitter Abby Bergerson paced the team with 16 kills, King added 12, Kelsea Bergerson and Emily O’Brien each chimed in with eight and senior Claire Stott completed the Mustangs’ well-rounded attack with seven. Junior setter Jenna Richardson made the offense go with 51 assists and she also paced the team with seven digs.
The Mustangs will advance to the CIF D-V state championship game at Santiago Canyon College in Orange. They will play 33-1 Marantha Christian, which beat Glendale Adventist in four sets to win the Southern California regional, on Friday at 4 p.m.
“It’s so exciting,” Kelsea Bergerson said. “Obviously, it’s our first time ever being here and making it to state. It’s overwhelming.”
San Marin dominated the play at the net for most of the night with its advantage in height and made life tough on the Hawks with their blistering serves — the Mustangs had nine aces — but struggled to get anything going in the fourth still reeling from the heartbreak in the third.
“We were all just a little flustered,” Bergerson said. “We were all a little confused about, ‘how did that happen?’ It took us the entire fourth set to really shake it off and get over that and move forward. It showed in the fifth. We were able to push past it.”
Mt. Madonna hung with San Marin through the first two sets even if the final scores said otherwise. The Hawks held a 3-0 lead in the first and were up 14-11 in the second but their defense, which had led them through the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds, couldn’t keep up the energy down the stretch.
After being jolted back to life in the third, however, Mt. Madonna was humming through the fourth. Peruzzi, Jacobs and sophomore libero AnMei Dasbach-Prisk were manic, diving for balls over and over again to keep points alive. The trio combined for 41 digs on the night.
Offensively, Jacobs struck down a trio of kills and junior right side Eleanor Harrington served up an ace during a key 6-1 run midway through the fourth to give the Hawks a 17-12 lead.
They cruised into the final set but could not complete what would’ve been a stunning comeback to win the program’s second NorCal championship and first since 2007, a year in which Mitchell was a sophomore at the small Watsonville-based private school.
“They started to feel that confidence again and realized that if they were going to go out we need to play — we need to have some fun,” Mitchell said. “The defense was amazing.”
Mt. Madonna will graduate four seniors: Sienna Clifton, Indigo Kelly, Howley and Kerr.
Kelly had 41 assists on the night and Kerr finished with four aces, while Howley and Clifton also made an impact on the match throughout.
“I’m super proud of all of us coming together,” Peruzzi said. “I’m going to really miss the seniors.”
