Sep 7, 2008

Menlo girls open season by taking 2nd in Spikefest

FROM DAILY NEWS DISPATCHES

Menlo School opened the girls volleyball season by placing second at the 32-team Milpitas Spikefest on Saturday at Independence High School in San Jose.

The Knights (4-1), two-time defending CCS champions in Div. IV, posted their first win over Presentation since 2000 and their best finish at the annual kickoff tournament since early this decade.

Menlo opened with a 25-10, 25-18 win over Silver Creek in which all 15 players saw action. Sophomore Allie Frappier had four kills on four attempts and senior libero Alexis Schwartz added seven digs. While Menlo graduated eight seniors in June, including three four-year starters, the Knights didn't miss a beat in the season opener.

Menlo then beat Westmont 25-15, 25-22 behind nine kills and a .429 hitting percentage from senior Lizzie Hale. Senior Abby Whelan added six kills and senior setter Molly Bagshaw had 21 assists and six digs.

Menlo started slowly against Presentation but rallied to almost pull out Set 1. Huge serving runs by Whelan helped Menlo to a 9-0 lead in Game 2 and a 13-5 lead in Game 3 in the Knights' 26-28, 25-21, 15-10 victory. Hale had 10 kills, Frappier had seven kills and nine digs, and junior Mila Sheeline added six digs. Whelan finished with five kills, five aces and six digs.

Menlo started slowly against Aptos, trailing 15-13 in Set 1, but finished on a 12-4 run en route to a 25-19, 25-14 win in a semifinal. Whelan hit .389 with nine kills and Bagshaw tallied 16 assists to help Menlo reach the championship match. Frappier, Bagshaw, Sheeline and senior Eliza Pyne accounted for Menlo's five aces, and the entire team didn't miss a serve in that match.

In the final, Mitty, who is ranked No. 2 nationally by Prepvolleyball.com, got off to a good start before the Knights were able to respond in a 25-10, 25-20 Monarchs victory. Menlo shook off a poor first-set performance and led much of the way in Set 2 before Mitty's firepower proved to be too much.

Hale hit .500 with five kills and Schwartz added six digs, while sophomore Jazmin Moledina had three stuff blocks in the second set to lead the Knights.

"Overall, it was a great start to the season," fourth-year Knights coach Chris Crader said. "The girls played really well, and I definitely see our team coming together. We have a lot of new players who are improving every week, and the veterans are doing a great job helping them along. To beat Presentation and Aptos back to back was very impressive. Both of those teams already had six or seven matches under their belts before today, and we got no rest in between, so to win both of those, on our first day of competition was pretty special.

"I thought Molly Bagshaw did a terrific job running our offense from the setter position, Alexis Schwartz, Abby Whelan and Allie Frappier did a great job in serve receive, and Lizzie Hale combined with Abby and Allie to hit very well. I'm excited to see where this season leads."