Girls volleyball: Branson tops Marin Catholic to scramble playoff seeding

With the top three teams in the entire North Coast Section competing in next week’s MCAL girls volleyball playoffs, the tournament was always going produce a high level of intrigue.

Branson, which came into Friday’s showdown ranked third by MaxPreps.com, was able to shuffle the playoff deck at the last moment by securing a 25-23, 25-21, 25-20 sweep over top-ranked Marin Catholic at College of Marin.

Branson (17-6, 7-1 MCAL) forced a three-way tie at the top of the league standings with MC (22-5, 7-1) and Redwood (17-8, 7-1). All three teams claimed a share of the pennant but draw numbers had to be used to determine who received the top seed in the MCAL playoffs.

Redwood, which began Friday as the No. 2 seed, moved up to No. 1 thanks to its draw number being 1. Branson, which started Friday in third, moved up to No. 2 thanks to its head-to-head win over MC. The Wildcats, who came into the game as the top seed, tumbled down to third with the loss

“We lost a lot of key players last year and have a lot of underclassmen this year, so this was a big game to show us that we could do it and we’re as good as we were last year,” Branson outside hitter Blake Cussen said.

Friday’s results gave both the Bulls and Giants byes into Wednesday’s semifinals. Marin Catholic will play at home Tuesday and awaits the winner of Monday’s play-in game – the result of another three-way tie in the standings for fifth through seventh. San Marin got the No. 5 seed on draw numbers. San Rafael and Terra Linda will play in for the No. 6 seed.

Cussen set the tone for Branson on Friday with a dominant performance, piling up most of her 15 kills and 10 digs during the first two sets.

“She had a great match all over,” Branson coach Michelle Brazil said. “Serving, defense, blocking, everything – great all-around game. She is a super consistent player. She has everything that you would want as a player.”

Branson and MC battled throughout a taut first set that featured 12 ties and seven lead changes. The Bulls pulled away late thanks to a trio of kills by Cussen, including set point at 25-23.

Cussen was again key to Branson’s decisive run in the second set, producing four kills, a block, and an ace over the course of a 12-point span that saw Branson extend its lead from 14-13 to 23-16. A thunderous kill for a 19-15 lead was the highlight.

“She’s such a calm, cool, and collected presence on the court,” Branson’s freshman setter Kate Bianchi said. “You always have to trust in her. You know she’s digging the ball. You know she’s going to get a kill. It’s so reassuring to play next to her.”

MC came out with a 4-0 burst to start the third set but Branson quickly reeled the Wildcats back in, taking the lead at 9-8. The Bulls took the lead for good at 13-12 and got kills late in the set from Ellie Corsello, Abby King, and Lucy Tusher before Cussen finished the match by tooling MC’s block for 25-20.

“We have never played more cohesively,” Bianchi said. “Tonight we executed and we played a good game.”

Branson had plenty of success blocking at the net, getting enough touches on MC’s swings to allow the back row to keep the ball off the court and continue points.

“Summer (Maunder) does a phenomenal job of putting her hands where she needs to be and slowing the ball down,” Brazil said. “It might not be the biggest stuff you’ve ever seen but she does her job so well. Ellie, too. They slow the ball down, they make our defense capable of digging a ball then obviously they just set everyone up for the kill. It’s kind of one of those unsung hero situations – the Summers, the Ellies. Without those little things, we don’t win the game.”

Branson’s other key to victory came behind the service line. The Bulls served tough all night while MC struggled with a slew of service errors throughout the match.

“From the serving line, we were bombing balls, hitting the zones I wanted them to hit and were really consistent,” Brazil said. “I don’t know how many serves we missed but I bet you it wasn’t more than four.”

A quick look at the stat sheet revealed just three service errors by Branson. King was second on the team with 10 kills, followed by Ella Tsai’s eight and Charlotte Moore’s six. The Bulls had four players with double-digit digs, led by Tusher’s 18. Tsai added 11 digs while Cussen and Lily Gross both had 10.

Around the county

• Natalie Stanford had 12 kills, five blocks, and four aces as Tam claimed the fourth seed in the MCAL playoffs for the fourth consecutive year in a row following a 25-12, 25-11, 25-23 win against San Rafael on Friday. Emmeline Sandgren added 25 assists and five kills while Annie Payne had nine digs and three aces. Tam (19-9, 5-3) is set to host No. 5 San Marin (16-17, 3-5) at 7 p.m. on Tuesday. San Rafael and Terra Linda will battle for the last playoff spot on Monday at a location to de determined.
• Archie Williams (12-10, 1-7) closed out the regular season with a 25-14, 25-16, 25-16 victory against Novato (10-16, 0-8) on Friday.
• Marin Academy closed out its league campaign with a 25-19, 21-25, 25-15, 25-13 win against San Domenico on Friday. The Wildcats (23-10, 9-1 BCL West) finished in a first-place tie with University after splitting the season series with the Red Devils. MA is the No. 2 seed in the BCL West playoffs and hosts No. 3 Urban at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday.