Its campus and enrollment are tiny, however Marymount Excessive is a huge on the planet of highschool volleyball and this 12 months’s squad appears to have the expertise to compete for a championship.
The Sailors took first place out of 64 groups on the prestigious Durango Fall Basic in Las Vegas, taking down rival Sierra Canyon, 21-25, 25-15, 25-12, within the remaining on Sept. 20. Senior hitter and Washington commit Sammy Destler was named the event’s most useful participant.
Marymount didn’t drop a set en path to the Hawaiian Island Labor Day Basic title in Hilo in late August. Final weekend in Phoenix, the Sailors superior to the championship match of the Platinum Division on the Nike Event of Champions Southwest, falling to reigning Southern Part Division 1 champion Mater Dei. The 2 applications might meet once more within the CIF playoffs in November.
For these retaining rating, that makes three finals and two titles at three tournaments in three completely different states over 4 weeks towards one of the best competitors within the nation — simply the way in which head coach Cari Klein likes it.
Marymount Excessive volleyball gamers, from left to proper, Makenna Barnes, Sammy Destler and Elle Vandeweghe clap fingers throughout a match.
(Steve Galluzzo / For The Instances)
“Winning Durango was huge … and very fun,” mentioned Klein, who reached the 700-win plateau early this season, her twenty eighth on the all-girls Catholic college with 350 college students throughout the road from UCLA. “These last two years we’ve gotten better the second day. Then playing TOC right after is a tough turnaround. It’s a lot of travel and a lot of volleyball.”
Three Sailors joined Destler on the all-tournament staff in Durango: senior setter Olivia Penske (dedicated to Georgetown), junior hitter Makenna Barnes (an early Northwestern commit who has pounded a team-best 217 kills) and junior center/reverse hitter and Stanford seashore commit Katelyn Oerlemans, who leads the staff with 63 blocks.
The roster additionally options senior center blocker and Southern Methodist commit Elle Vandeweghe, senior center blocker Frankie Jones (Brown), senior exterior hitter Presley Jones (Amherst), senior libero Declan Eastman (Rice) and senior reverse hitter Grace Jamison (Lafayette).
Marymount misplaced to Mater Dei in among the best finals in event historical past (28-26 within the third set) at Durango one 12 months in the past.
Women’ volleyball coach Cari Klein has racked up greater than 700 wins throughout her 28 seasons at Marymount Excessive.
(Steve Galluzzo / For The Instances)
“People don’t realize how few students we have or how academically-oriented it is,” Klein mentioned. “Our girls have their books out in between every game. They’re studying on buses, on trains, in hallways … any chance they get to do schoolwork.”
Having performed the game herself (she was a state MVP at Irvine Excessive in 1988 then an All-West Coast Convention hitter at Pepperdine), Klein calls for loads of her gamers, however she additionally tries to make the day by day routine enjoyable, value getting up on the daybreak. Her motto is a tough follow makes a straightforward sport.
Destler, who began taking part in for Klein’s Sunshine Volleyball Membership when she was 8, takes that message to coronary heart. After Marymount was dealt its first loss at Redondo Union on Sept 2, she acknowledged: “We have practice at 5:45 a.m. tomorrow and I have to like it.”
The Sailors (29-3) are off to their finest begin for the reason that 2021 staff that completed 35-0, successful 92 of 100 units within the course of, and earned Klein PrepVolleyball.com nationwide highschool coach of the 12 months honors.
Of the 20 gamers on varsity, eight are seniors and 9 are juniors.
“This team is similar to the 2021 team,” Klein mentioned. “What’s different is that those seniors four years ago were so hungry because they lost their junior year to COVID-19.”
Marymount’s longest drought between part finals appearances in Klein’s tenure is 5 seasons (2013 to 2017), so the staff is about due. She additionally needs so as to add one other participant of the 12 months to these she has already mentored — Haley Jorgensborg (2001); Stesha Selsky (2002 and 2003); Kelly Irvin (2005); Lauren Greskovics-Fuller (2011); and Elia Rubin (2021).
“There are nine or 10 teams in our section that could really give us a match,” mentioned Klein, who has steered the Sailors to 10 Southern Part titles (together with a file six in a row from 2001 to 2006), eight regional crowns and 7 state championships since taking on this system in 1998. “Huntington Beach, Los Alamitos, Sierra Canyon, Newport Harbor, Santa Margarita, Redondo, Mira Costa, Harvard-Westlake, Mater Dei — all very hard to beat. And if you get to the next level, there are four San Diego schools that are really strong too. CIF is stacked.”
Along with the postseason success, Marymount has received 24 league titles underneath Klein. So as to add to that whole, it should beat Sierra Canyon, which defeated the Sailors 3 times final season. The primary of the colleges’ two Mission League conferences is Monday evening in Chatsworth.
In a single regard, a bit title in 2025 could be sweeter than the others for Klein as a result of she misplaced her residence within the Palisades fireplace in January, as did a few of her gamers. She has been dwelling in Playa del Rey along with her husband, former Palisades Excessive quarterback Perry Klein.
“We’ve all had to deal with it already, but a lot of girls in the program have been affected and the younger club players as well,” she mentioned. “It’s a pretty emotional year for Marymount.”
