Girls volleyball: San Rafael earns statement win against Archie Williams

It’s a tale as old as time. Marin volleyball teams compile gaudy non-league records every year before running into the murderers’ row that is the MCAL.

Still, there was something about the 15-1 start that the San Rafael High girls volleyball team put together this season that suggested it could mean something more once the Bulldogs had to line up and face MCAL opposition.

San Rafael (17-1, 2-0 MCAL) delivered a program-validating type of victory on Wednesday night. The Bulldogs built a two-set lead against a perennial playoff team in Archie Williams (11-5, 0-2) then watched it melt away before winning a wild fifth set for a 25-23, 25-18, 25-27, 23-25, 15-13 victory.

“I believe in this group and some version of San Rafael volleyball coming into its own for the last couple of years and the core group of this team has demonstrated that that’s possible,” San Rafael coach Jessica Woodall-Massey said. “Even in moments of last year, like beating the No. 1 seed in (North Coast Section) was in large part to so many people that are currently still here. … We know when we enter MCAL its sometimes long, dark days and with the goal that we want to be that five seed. We want to go out and really demonstrate that we belong here and that we’re doing things. (The players) have collectively decided that they want to change the name of San Rafael volleyball and they want people talking about them.”

Elsa Kehoe delivered 31 kills and five aces and setter Abby Sims had 45 assists as the Bulldogs delivered a victory that stamps them as legitimate contenders to make the playoffs in the toughest league in the NCS.

“I think it honestly is (the biggest win we’ve had) just because the past few years we’ve lost to Archie and coming into this game we had so much fire and passion,” Kehoe said. “We really, really wanted to win and I think it showed on the court. Whenever we had a few mistakes, we urged each other to let them go. We just wanted it so bad.”

San Rafael had gone 1-29 against Archie Williams dating back to 2006 with the lone win coming during the 2015 season.

“We’ve definitely been building up to MCALs with the rest of our divisional wins,” Sims said. “It’s just a shift in mindset that just because the MCAL has been challenging for us in the past, this year we deserve to be here and we need to change our mindset so that we can beat these teams.”

San Rafael showed some signs last season, dropping a four-setter to Archie Williams in which every game was decided by two points. Wednesday’s game followed largely the same script with only the second set being particularly comfortable for either side.

The Bulldogs made their move in the second set behind a strong serving run by Kehoe, who piled up four aces in six points and earned “M-V-P” chants in the process to put the Bulldogs ahead 16-6.

Archie Williams climbed back into the set with some tough serving by Alyse Rosen and some kills from Felicity Brown to pull within 21-16 before the Bulldogs closed it out to take a 2-0 lead.

San Rafael looked like it might call it an early night as Kehoe went on another service run for a 14-8 lead in the third but Rosen responded with a run of her own, closing it with an ace to put the Peregrine Falcons ahead 17-16.

Archie Williams trailed 23-20 on three consecutive kills by Kehoe but rallied immediately, never facing a match point. Zoe English and Lydia Battaglia had crucial late kills as Archie Williams made sure if the Bulldogs were going to win, they’d need to earn it.

The Bulldogs came tantalizingly close to ending it in the fourth set as another trio of kills from Kehoe gave them a 21-19 lead. The Peregrine Falcons again refused to go down quietly, taking the set on a well-timed setter dump by Rosen.

The fifth set featured five lead changes and 11 ties. Woodall-Massey inserted freshman Tainy Mendez into the match and the move paid dividends as Mendez came up with a pair of crucial blocks and a pair of important digs.

San Rafael inched back in front 13-12 on a point where Sims set Kehoe four consecutive times before she was finally able to register her 30th kill of the match. Archie Williams forged the final tie at 13-13 on a kill by Battaglia. Kehoe’s 31st and final kill gave the Bulldogs a 14-13 edge.

“I’m very tired, I’m not going to lie, but it was very much worth it” Kehoe said. “When I got that last kill, I was relieved. It was good, worth it.”

San Rafael claimed a historic and hard-fought win after a hitting error by Archie Williams on the next point.

“It was just a crazy game,” San Rafael’s Audrey Merk said. “Honestly there’s obviously ups and downs but I think our team has such good energy. The team is so tightly knit. I think that’s what pulled us through in those moments.”

Merk added 11 kills and 15 digs for the Bulldogs while Aisling Kehoe had 15 digs and a crucial ace midway through the fifth set. Freshman Cosie Bousquet also had a strong game behind the service line, including match point.

Archie Williams got 14 kills from Brown, 28 assists and four aces from Rosen, plus 37 digs from Danielle Christian.

Around the county

• Redwood (9-6, 2-0) won its second consecutive match to start league play, securing a 25-18, 25-13, 19-25, 25-16 win against Tam on Wednesday night. Tam (13-5, 1-1) got 17 kills and five digs from Natalie Stanford and 31 assists from Emmeline Sandgren. Jade Curtin-Savala added nine digs and Makalya Scheffer had 10 kills.
• San Marin picked up its first league win of the campaign, 25-16, 25-17, 25-9 against Terra Linda on Wednesday. The Mustangs (7-12, 1-1) avenged a non-league sweep at the hands of TL (14-6, 1-1) last week. Swayer Zappelli had 11 kills and four aces for San Marin while Brianna Nottingham had 16 kills. Damen Heath had 36 assists and two aces. Alyson Labozzetta had 12 kills and Brooke Brumley had six digs and four aces.
• Branson (9-4, 1-1) came away with a 25-12, 25-16, 25-16 victory against Novato (8-8, 0-2) on Wednesday.