The timeline from Marian High School to Marian Catholic High School to the current Mater Dei Catholic High School is continuous for all Crusader sports teams.
That includes girls volleyball.
Marian captured three consecutive San Diego Section championships in the sport from 1979-81 when the Metro Conference was a bona fide powerhouse.
It was time to revisit history last Saturday as top-seeded Mater Dei Catholic entered its name in girls volleyball lore after sweeping second-seeded Tri-City Christian 25-20, 25-17, 25-20 to capture the section’s Division III championship at Cathedral Catholic High School.
Thirty-eight years and a couple generations later, the Crusaders are champions again in the sport.
“It meant tenacity, it meant passion, it meant dedication,” said Mater Dei Catholic head coach Marissa Ritchie of the team’s return to the championship spotlight after so many years.
This is Ritchie’s fifth year as head coach of the Crusaders. She said this has been her most successful team during that timeline.
The 2019 Mater Dei Catholic team certainly lived up to its historic past by turning in three-game sweeps in all four rounds of this year’s divisional playoff bracket.
The Crusaders defeated 16th-seeded Southwest El Centro 25-10, 25-16, 25-20 in the first round.
Mater Dei Catholic eliminated ninth-seeded San Pasqual 25-14, 25-19, 25-15 in the quarterfinals.
The Crusaders overpowered 13th-seeded Montgomery 25-18, 25-12, 25-11 in the semifinals after the Mesa League rival Aztecs had pulled off upset wins over fourth-seeded Mira Mesa in the first round and fifth-seeded Coronado in the quarterfinals.
Senior J.J. Kilby led Mater Dei Catholic with 10 kills in last Saturday’s CIF championship game while senior Brianna Keller had eight kills and senior Liz Flores had seven kills. Senior Serina Cannon had three blocks.
TCC junior Kelly Fritzsch led all players on the court with 18 kills.
Mater Dei Catholic (31-7) finished second in this year’s Mesa League standings with a 9-3 record to league champion Eastlake, which posted a perfect 12-0 league campaign en route to earning the No. 5 seed in the Open Division playoffs.
History lesson
South County schools dominated the early years of the CIF championship playoffs. Bonita Vista, under coach Janet Kimball, defeated coach Jerry Coziahr’s Montgomery team for the first section title in 1974.
In fact, Bonita Vista won the first two CIF titles, followed by Hilltop in 1976. Bonita Vista won two more CIF championships in 1977 and 1978, followed by Marian in 1979 and 1980.
The 1980 Marian team finished second in the state championships in Los Angeles while the 1979 Marian team finished third at the state finals in Santa Clara.
The section awarded championships in three divisions in 1981: Julian won the Class 1A title, Marian won the Class 2A championship and Torrey Pines won the Class 3A title.
Marian made a return trip to the 2A championship match in 1984, placing runner-up to La Jolla.
Marian’s Julie Baker earned recognition as the 1979 CIF Player of the Year while Alisa Eischen represented the Crusaders as the 1981 and 1982 CIF Player of the Year.
Marian reeled off 46 consecutive victories from 1980-82 to stand as the current section record.
Marian High School was established in 1960 as the first Catholic co-educational high school in the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego.
The original campus was located in South San Diego near the intersection of Coronado Avenue and Thermal Street, across the street from the parochial K-8 St. Charles Catholic School.
The name Marian Catholic was adopted after the 1980s.
After the diocese’s decision to upgrade all secondary school campuses in 2002, Mater Dei Catholic High School replaced the former Marian Catholic High School in September 2007 with a new campus in eastern Chula Vista.
For those who remember the original campus in South San Diego, the new campus is a significant upgrade in both classrooms and athletic venues, including a state-of-the-art stadium, pool and gymnasium complex.
As for sports, some Crusader teams have made the transition from old to new somewhat seamlessly, while for others, it’s taken a while longer.
SAN DIEGO SECTION GIRLS VOLLEYBALL FINALS
Open Division: Torrey Pines defeated Cathedral Catholic
Division I: San Marcos defeated Santa Fe Christian
Division II: Maranatha Christian defeated Escondido
Division III: Mater Dei Catholic defeated Tri-City Christian
Division IV: Holtville defeated HIgh Tech High Chula Vista
Division V: West Shores defeated River Valley
High Tech High Chula Vista lady spikers end season with runner-up CIF plaque
High Tech High Chula Vista was one of two local teams that advanced to the divisional championship round in this year’s San Diego Section girls volleyball playoffs.
The Bruins, seeded third in the Division IV bracket, proved high achievers by engineering a runner-up finish in last Friday’s championship game at Canyon Crest Academy.
Twelfth-seeded Holtville proved even higher achievers after emerging on top in a five-set marathon 25-19, 20-25, 25-13, 21-25, 18-16.
HTH Chula Vista ended an otherwise highly successful season with an overall 18-16 record.
The Bruins were the only local Division IV team to advance in the opening round of the playoffs after capturing a highly competitive match-up against 14th-seeded Foothills Christian.
High Tech won the first two games 25-13 and 25-20 but the Knights evened the series with 25-22 and 25-21 victories in the next two games.
The Bruins won the deciding fifth game 18-16.
HTH Chula Vista swept sixth-seeded Oceanside in the quarterfinals to move on, then defeated seventh-seeded Valley Center in five games 25-13, 23-25, 17-25, 25-18, 15-13 to advance to last Friday’s division championship.
Eastlake, Mater Dei Catholic spikers advance in state regional playoffs
Both Eastlake and Mater Dei Catholic high schools earned seeds in this week’s Southern California girls volleyball regional playoffs.
Mater Dei Catholic, the reigning San Diego Section Division III champions, received the No. 8 seed in the Division III regionals and defeated ninth-seeded Saddleback Valley Christian in five games 20-25, 25-23, 25-25, 23-25, 15-13 in Tuesday’s opening round.
Brianna Keller led Mater Dei Catholic (32-7) with 25 kills in Tuesday’s regional victory while Valeria Gonzalez collected 45 assists. J.J. Kilby had 10 kills while Liz Flores added nine kills.
After dropping the opening game, the Crusaders rallied to win the second and third games before falling into a 2-2 tie entering the fifth-game tiebreaker.
The visitors took early control with a 3-0 lead but the hosts rallied to build a 14-10 lead. However, Saddleback Valley rallied to narrow the score to 14-13 and place the Crusaders on the brink of elimination.
But Mater Dei Catholic won the last point to advance to the next round.
“We had to first adjust to them and find their weaknesses,” Crusader head coach Marissa Ritchie said.
Meanwhile, Open Division quarterfinalist Eastlake received the No. 2 seed in the Division II regionals, drawing a home game against 15th-seeded Valley Christian on Tuesday, winning in a sweep 26-24, 25-21, 25-14.
The Titans had to rally to win the second game en route to claiming a sweep.
Madi Bogle led Eastlake with 17 kills on the night while Malia Gementera and Lauren Clifton both had 10 kills. Savannah Johnson and Alyssa Webster led the Titans with four blocks while Breanna Augustin, Alayna Edquid and Abigail Macalagium had three aces.
Both local teams advanced to Thursday’s second round.
Eastlake defeated 10th-seeded Rancho Cucamonga (23-12) by scores of 25-19, 25-11, 18-25, 25-21 while Mater Dei Catholic lost 3-0 to top-seeded Visalia Central Valley Christian (29-5).
Eastlake (36-9) advanced to third-round play ion Saturday, Nov. 16, and will host 11th-seeded Ontario Christian (35-3) at 6 p.m.
Ontario Christian upset third-seeded San Marcos, the reigning San Diego Section Division I champion, 25-17, 25-20, 25-15 in Thursday’s second round.
Bogle led the Titans in the win over Rancho Cucamonga with a team-high 21 kills while Clifton had 12 kills.a Gementera had 11 kills while Bianca Merloti and Alyssa Webster both had two blocks. Edquid had 23 assists, while Macalagium had 21 assists.
For updates, visit the website at www.cif-state.org.
