Short, Mighty Chadwick Falls to Giants

SAN DIEGO - Chadwick School's magical run in the state girls high school volleyball playoffs hit a wall Tuesday night at Cathedral Catholic High School.

The two-time Southern Section Division III AA champion Dolphins lost 25-12, 25-9, 25-13 in the Southern California Regional final before a crowd of about 500 fans.

Height makes might in volleyball. There are five 6-footers on Cathedral Catholic's roster, and all of them contributed to the Dons' victory.

Led by 6-foot-tall Morgan Cormier's 10 kills and four blocks, the No. 1-seed Dons sent the Dolphins home losers for just the second time in 29 matches.

Without any players topping six feet, it was obvious that Chadwick's scrappy crew was in over their heads.

"You can't hit a ball through a wall," Chadwick coach Anita Drennen said. "We've played tall teams before, but we've never played a team whose players were that tall and that talented."

Chadwick's Abbe Holtze of Manhattan Beach led the Dolphins with seven kills, but she was short on help.

"I think we tried not to be intimidated by their height," said junior setter Sarah Lucenti of Manhattan Beach. "We tried to move the set around, but we just couldn't hit over their block."

Cathedral Catholic's Kristen Witous (6-0) and Kamila Tan (6-1) each contributed eight kills for the 34-4 Dons.

While the loss was a disappointment for Drennen and the Dolphins, the coach of 28 years was eager to praise her team.

"They are the first Chadwick team to advance this far in the state playoffs in school history," Drennen said. "No one can take that away from them."

Besides the glaring difference in height, Chadwick was working against another numerical disadvantage. The enrollment for Cathedral Catholic is roughly 1,800 students. Chadwick School has about 380 students.

Drennen said why two schools with such an enrollment disparity are in the same division for the state playoffs is anyone's guess.

The difference surprised Cathedral Catholic coach Kelly Drobeck.

"Is that how many they have?" she asked. "They should be proud of how well they've done."

While the loss was heartbreaking, today in school the Chadwick players will be sporting a California Regional Runners-up trophy. They could also be wearing individual mementos.

Awarded silver medals for Chadwick in a ceremony after the match were seniors Lizzy Yates, Isabella Kinkelaar, Skylar Weber, Madelyn Tournat of Manhattan Beach, Erin Figel of Manhattan Beach and Eliza Powers; juniors Lucenti, Holtze, Kristen Parks, Sarah Gurbach and Emily Newton of Manhattan Beach; and freshman Jillian Parks of Manhattan Beach.

One Dolphin says she never saw it coming.

"We lost nine seniors off our team that won CIF last year," Lucenti said. "I didn't think we would win league. I didn't think we would win CIF. It's been a great run."