Cal High had one of the most successful postseason runs in school history last month when the women’s volleyball team won their first NCS championship in 30 years and reached the second round of the CIF state championship.
The Grizzlies won the Division I championship for the first time since 1982 after a huge win over fellow EBAL member San Ramon Valley. After dropping the first set 23-25, Cal stormed back to take three straight sets 25-15, 25-8, and 25-19.
This was the school’s first NCS championship since 2010 when the tennis doubles pair of Kellie Taylor and Shannon Hung won, and the 17th title Cal has won in its history.
Cal finished the season ranked 29th in the state, and 165 nationally. Both are the highest the team has finished in the MaxPreps era, which dates back to 1992.
“We couldn’t have asked for a better way to end our high school career,” said senior setter Devon Haley.
The dominance shown in the final three sets over the Wolves has been consistent for the Grizzlies all season.
It only took Cal three sets to take care of the other two NCS opponents it faced. This included a beat down of Monte Vista in the semifinals, and a clean sweep of Berkeley in the quarterfinals.
“We knew we had a good opportunity,” said senior Alysha Delange.
Unfortunately, Cal’s run at the state championship was short lived. After a nail-biting win over Homestead High School in the opening round of the Northern Califrnia bracket on Nov. 20, Cal got swept in three sets at Granite Bay on Nov. 24.
Granite Bay ended up losing the Nor Cal title to St. Francis, Sacramento. Marymount, Los Angeles, won the state title.
Finishing at 30-4 is impressive, but what makes this season better is the way the Grizzlies won. They only had to go to five sets twice during this year, and surrendered only 21 sets compared to the 85 that they won.
“We had a great outcome, becuase we all got along so well,” said senior opposite Stephanie Smith.
Football
The Grizzlies made it to the semifinals of the Division I NCS playoffs before losing in devastating fashion to James Logan, 40-7, on Nov. 24.
The loss was one of the only a few sour spots on an otherwise sweet season.
“We had a decent year,” said coach Eric Billeci, noting his team met his expectations
Cal finished with an overall record of 10-3, and 5-1 in EBAL, which was good enough for the Grizzlies to share the league title with San Ramon Valley.
It was also good enough to earn the Grizzlies the No. 2 seed in the NCS playoffs, and 53rd ranking in the state.
Cal’s only EBAL loss came to rival Monte Vista, 44-26 on Oct 5.
The other regular season loss came to perennial powerhouse De La Salle, 27-14, on Nov 2. This was the closest game Cal has had against De La Salle since the two teams met in 2010 in the NCS finals. Cal lost that game 31-17.
De La Salle went on to win its 21st straight NCS championship and its fourth consecutive Open Divsion state title.
The thing that kept the Grizzlies from going deeper into the playoffs this year was the defense.
While the offense led all EBAL teams in points scored with 461 – 100 points more than the next closest team – the defense surrendered 327, putting the Grizzlies right in the middle of the pack.
“We are looking to improve our defense going into next season,” said Billeci.
Cross Country
Cal’s runners made a solid showing at the NCS championshuips at Hayward High on Nov. 17. Junior Madison Ricks placed 11th with a time of 19:29. This was Cal’s highest finish for the men and women’s teams.
