WATSONVILLE — One team had just won a Central Coast Section championship and the other had come up short.
It was tough to tell which team was which by the squads’ respective reactions — or lack there of.
Top-seeded Santa Catalina repeated as the CCS Division V champion, sweeping No. 2 Mt. Madonna 25-21, 25-14, 25-14 on Friday night at Watsonville High but the powerhouse Cougars we’re not backflipping over the victory.
After they struck down the final title-sealing point, the only celebration was a raised McKinley Fox fist.
Fox, a senior setter and the presumptive back-to-back Mission Trail Athletic League M.V.P., said the muted celebration was typical of the Cougars, whom had several players yawing throughout what turned out to be a surprisingly close but ultimately predictable final.
“That’s kind of how we always are,” Fox said. “We’re just kind of a low-key team.”
Low-key but highly skilled, Santa Catalina (25-0) impressively entered Friday’s final on a 49-match win streak against CCS opponents but Mt. Madonna (16-11) made the Cougars look human in spurts.
Playing in their first CCS final since 2014, the Hawks had the crowd roaring and the stands rumbling during the early points of the first set, as junior outside Mara Peruzzi and junior middle blocker Kaili Sullens started the match with a tone-setting stuff block of Santa Catalina junior Maria Santos.
They led 6-1 before the Cougars regrouped and slowly chipped away at the Hawks’ lead, which eventually evaporated near the end of the first set thanks to the setting of Fox and hammering smashes from Santos and senior Saige Madden.
Mt. Madonna, a fourth-place finisher in the Santa Cruz County Athletic League, never went away. They hung around in the second set and held a lead in the third but Santa Catalina’s sheer size and power — reminiscent of a top-flight junior college squad — proved too much for the Hawks, who were all high-fiving, smiling and chipper despite the loss.
“I’m beyond excited by the way they played,” said Mt. Madonna head coach Erin Mitchell. “This is the best I’ve seen them play all year.”
That bodes well for the Hawks heading into the start of the California Interscholastic Federation Northern California playoffs.
Mt. Madonna was given the No. 3 seed in the D-V bracket and Santa Catalina was named the top seed in D-III.
The Hawks are off until Saturday when they will host the winner of No. 6 Justin-Siena and No. 11 Escalon at 7 p.m. in the quarterfinals.
“If we bring that same energy and intensity that we brought in this game, we can go forward and really improve as a team,” Peruzzi said. “I’m really proud of us.”
Peruzzi had 10 kill, 13 digs and a block and sophomore Paola Jacobs proved to be a nice foil for her on the other side once again with 13 kills, 10 digs and an ace. Sullens has three rejections but could only hold back the Cougars’ talented hitters for so long.
Santos and Madden each had 12 kills for Santa Catalina. Fox finished with 34 assists, eight digs, three blocks and a small but noticeable sign of emotion on a team that was otherwise businesslike in its presence all night.
A year after having their season end in the CIF NorCal D-V semifinals, the Cougars, ranked No. 2 in the state among D-V teams by MaxPreps, have their sights set on advancing deeper this season.
Even if they won’t admit it.
“We don’t look at the rankings that often,” Fox said. “We just look at the next opponent as the most important game. We just kind of keep it rolling like that.”
On Friday night, the Hawks had the Cougars’ full attention and with good reason.
“I think that the fire was just there and it’s hard to maintain that fire and energy the whole time,” Mitchell said. “It was a lot a once and then we tried to breath a little in set two and three. Even in set two and three, yeah, they had a couple runs on us, but I still think they played phenomenal and I’m super proud.”
