MOUNTAIN VIEW – Crown them.
Archbishop Mitty has been an up-and-down team this season. The Monarchs started the year with great expectations coming off a stellar 2023 campaign that ended with a NorCal championship.
It didn’t always look like Mitty would get there this year. But at the end of their match against St. Francis on Tuesday in Mountain View, the Monarchs hadn’t just won the 2024 NorCal girls volleyball Open Division championship.
They had done it without dropping a set in the entire tournament.
Nine consecutive sets won was the culmination of two weeks of wild emotional swings. The Monarchs had blown a 2-0 lead over St. Ignatius at home in the CCS Open semifinals, ultimately losing 3-2.
Archbishop Mitty, Archbishop Mitty’s Nicole Macalintal (8), celebrates their 25-11, 25-18, 25-19 win with students over St. Francis for the CIF NorCal Open Division championship game at St. Francis High School in Mountain View, Calif., on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
Mitty never lost another lead after that.
“The current group that was on the court, they weren’t tested,” Monarchs coach Jon Wallace said. “They got really tested against SI, and we didn’t respond appropriately. So we had good talks about it. They knew clearly where they wanted to go when things got hard, and they showed it at Marin Catholic and against Rocklin. And for sure tonight in this atmosphere. They were laser-focused on their job, and they all executed it really well.”
Mitty jumped out to a huge lead in the first set, winning 25-11. The Monarchs weren’t nearly as dominant in the second set, taking it 25-18.
By the end of the third set, there was no longer any doubt. Mitty won 25-19, and the best team in Northern California had been definitively established.
Archbishop Mitty’s Makenna Crosson (4) spikes the ball against St. Francis in the second set of their CIF NorCal Open Division championship game at St. Francis High School in Mountain View, Calif., on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
“It really lit a fire,” Mitty hitter Makenna Crosson said of the loss to SI. “We focused on all the small things, all the things we needed to do in that match that we didn’t end up doing. And it showed here in our sweep.”
St. Francis had no answer for Crosson, a top recruit in the 2026 class who is committed to Minnesota. Crosson, who led the Monarchs with 16 kills, and senior hitter Izzy Romero had missed a large portion of the regular season, limiting what Mitty could do offensively.
The Monarchs are all the way back now, and they are officially a force to be reckoned with in the state championship game on Saturday against Cathedral Catholic-San Diego in Orange.
“Mitty played incredibly well,” St. Francis coach Lake Merchen said. “We’ve been dealing with some adversity it seems like the entire playoffs, and we’ve been catching little streaks, little miracles here and there. It seems like tonight it ran dry a little bit, which is obviously a bummer.
“We lost to a team that just played perfect all night, and that’s something that you can appreciate as a volleyball fan. You’re like, ‘OK, if I’m going to go down, I’m going to go down to a group of really good coaches and a group of incredible players.’”
St. Francis’ Grace Gowdy (14) bumps the ball against Archbishop Mitty in the third set of their CIF NorCal Open Division championship game at St. Francis High School in Mountain View, Calif., on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
Mitty was thought to be the best team in Northern California entering the CCS playoffs, but the upset to SI shifted that paradigm. Since then, the Monarchs have put forth a sustained stretch of dominance that only seemed possible in their wildest dreams.
“I was really hopeful that they were going to be who we are,” Wallace said. “Which is: it doesn’t matter if you’re up 2-0 or down 2-0. Because when we were up 2-0 against SI, we changed. That’s not how we want to be. And so we took that and said, ‘OK, we’re pedal to the metal. Doesn’t matter what the scoreboard says. We’re going as hard as we can.’
“And I said, ‘The challenge is going to be when you get punched in the face, can you still be that?’ And they all said, ‘Yes, we’re going to be.’ So they showed that tonight in a really nice way. That’s a good team. And I don’t think beating them 3-0 is an indication of where they are. We’re just going to be relentless in what we do.”
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Before Tuesday night, it seemed unlikely that whoever came out of the NorCal Open bracket could challenge the best team in Southern California.
Now? We’ll see.
“That’s a tough call,” Wallace said. “The teams down there have been more battle-tested than we have by like tenfold. So it’s hard to say when push comes to shove, is our shove gonna be good enough? We’ve definitely got some pieces that are pretty good. We got some athletes who can play at that level.
“Can we go down there and do it over time and win three sets? That will be a challenge. But we have girls that were in that match three years ago as freshmen, and they know what it’s like, so I think we’re going to be OK. But teams down there are different.”