Girls volleyball: Branson continues NCS dominance with second Open title

England’s Gary Lineker had a famous quote about soccer being a sport where you chase the ball for 90 minutes but in the end, the Germans always win. Facing the Branson School girls volleyball team in the North Coast Section playoffs – regardless of the division – must feel the same way.

The Bulls excelled in all areas on Saturday night, defeating host Marin Catholic 25-21, 27-25, 25-22 to win their second consecutive NCS Open Division championship and 15th section title in 16 tries across all divisions.

“Honestly it’s amazing,” Branson middle blocker Abby King said. “Our team has worked so hard this year. The first time we played MC we really came out with a strong, competitive — just like we really wanted to win and we had that same attitude today.”

The Open Division was introduced last season, making the Bulls the only program to hold the title to this point. The Bulls also finished the season as the top-ranked team in the section in 2022 and 2023, before the Open Division was around to make that distinction more “official.”

Branson’s dominance over the NCS at various levels stretches all the way back to 2009 – coinciding with the start of coach Michelle Brazil’s tenure. The Bulls were runners up in 2017, the only time they didn’t win a title.

“I feel like this year, more so than other years, really was like who’s having a good night at the right moment,” Brazil said. “Because we [Branson, MC, and Redwood] have all beaten each other and it’s really just who is playing the best at that moment because we’ve very much proven that anyone can beat anyone.

“It’s been a while since it’s been like that so that just makes it so much more fun when you go into these championship matches and it’s like ‘Listen, if you don’t come to play, you’re not going to win’.”

This year, the Bulls were hiding in plain sight – as much as a Branson girls volleyball team can – entering the tournament as the No. 4 seed. Branson had to win road games against No. 5 San Ramon Valley, No. 1 Redwood, and No. 2 Marin Catholic to clinch the title.

The Bulls (20-7), along with MC (25-7), Redwood (20-9) and San Marin (which qualified from D-III) advance to the State Playoffs which begin next week. The seeding meeting is on Sunday.

To win section titles as consistently as Branson has done, a team must be great at all aspects of volleyball. Branson showed off its many strengths throughout the match against MC.

The Bulls came out serving tough, with King and Blake Cussen picking up multiple aces in the early going.

“Something that we also focus on a lot in practice is not only serving tough, but being consistent in hitting the spots that we need to hit,” Brazil said. “Serving tough is great but there’s a lot of strategy in terms of disrupting offense and putting the ball in a place to disrupt the other team’s offense and we did an amazing job of not only serving tough, but doing the disrupting as well.”

Both King and Cussen were able to place their serves well, with King’s appearing to dip and veer to the right after coming over the net while Cussen’s appeared to flutter or knuckle at times.

“We’ve been working on zone serving so much,” setter Lily Gross said. “I think that made a huge impact because we kept the other team out of system and we made their lives really hard and that started at the service line.”

Setters Gross and Kate Bianchi were both involved in assisting Branson’s many hitters. Ella Tsai had a team-high 17 kills, King had 13, and Cussen added eight.

King in particular came up in big in the match’s pivotal moments, coming up with three kills late in the second set as the Bulls erased a 19-23 deficit to win 27-25 and take a commanding 2-0 lead.

Branson’s digging and blocking came to the forefront in the third set as MC threw everything it had at the Bulls to try to stay in the match.

“They really came out focused and when MC was fighting so hard in that third set – I mean they really were fighting,” Brazil said. “I thought we did a really good job of just playing our game, keeping it steady, and keep fighting. Keep fighting and don’t give up.”

Five different Bulls had double-digit digs, led by libero Lucy Tusher with 18. Tsai added 16 digs, Cussen had 15 and both setters came up big as Gross had 11 digs and Bianchi had 10.

“I thought our setters’ defense was so fricking good,” Brazil said. “Lily and Kate were so amazing. Their growth in that area has been phenomenal.”

Finally, it was Branson’s blocking that proved to be decisive as the teams battled it out in the third set.

MC won a marathon point to make it 18-18 – the kind of momentum point that can lead directly to the type of run MC needed to stay in the match. Middle blocker Ellie Corsello came up with an emphatic stuff block on the ensuing point to give the Bulls the lead at 19-18.

King, who had six blocks on the night, won a long rally with a block to put the Bulls ahead 22-21 then produced another one for a 23-21 lead. Tsai put the match to bed a few points later with a kill that found an open spot in the back-left corner of the court.

Branson 25-22 to win it in 3 and go back to back in the Open. #marinvolleyball pic.twitter.com/Kp32ueFkMH

— Ian Ross (@IRossMIJ) November 9, 2025

Tsai’s match winner continued a trend of Branson being a particularly tough matchup for MC over the past two seasons. Aside from MC’s five-set win over Branson in the MCAL semifinals on Oct. 22, the Bulls have swept the Wildcats in the other four most recent meetings dating back to last season.

“We have really good team energy and team camaraderie,” King said. “We all obviously love each other and we work really well together. Our friendships off the court help with our play on the court. Just instilling that kind of trust going up against them – obviously they’re an amazing team as well – so I think that little extra bit of camaraderie and tightness as a team really pushes us over the edge.”