The toughest opponent for the Palo Alto girls' volleyball team this season may be history. Somehow, the Vikings need to put their historic back-to-back CIF Division I state titles behind them and move on.

One current reminder of the past two seasons is Paly's current No. 5 national ranking in the MaxPreps.com Xcellent 25, which reflects the Vikings' past and not its present.

That's something the Vikings will just have to live with until they start losing. Paly, however, opened its 2012 season with a 25-20, 25-23, 25-20 nonleague victory over visiting Notre Dame-Belmont on Tuesday night.

The victory was the 22nd straight, dating to last year's season-ending 21-match win streak. The Vikings are now 78-4 since the start of the 2010 season that ended 41-1 and with the program's first-ever state crown.

Gone are eight seniors from last year's championship team. Head coach Dave Winn has only two seniors in 2012, co-captains Shelby Knowles and Sophia Bono. Both came up big against Notre Dame-Belmont.

Knowles contributed 14 kills and 10 digs with Bono finishing with a career-high 35 assists as the Vikings opened a new era with a young team that includes seven juniors and six sophomores and a roster with only six returning players from last season.

"We're in a bit of a transition because we had a lot of strong-willed players graduate," Winn told the Viking Magazine. "This year people are having to step up and do the different roles. It's going to take a couple weeks to get comfortable with that."

Junior Becca Raffel finished with 11 kills and junior Keri Gee added 15 digs to lead the Vikings in that department.

Others contributing to the Vikings' victory included Bella Graves, Lauren Kerr, Rudra Aiyar, Molly Fogarty and Jada Schoenberger.

In other volleyball action Tuesday:

Six-fooot senior Ellie Shannon produced 13 kills and four blocks to pace Sacred Heart Prep to a 25-19, 25-21, 25-23 nonleague victory over visiting Menlo-Atherton.

The Gators (6-1) also got nine kills and 10 digs from senior Sonia Abuel-Saud, seven kills and six blocks from 6-1 senior Payton Smith, 10 digs from senior Helen Gannon and 26 assists from senior Cammie Merten.

The Bears (0-1) were missing last year's MVP in the PAL Bay Division, senior Ali Spindt, while junior Pauli King was limited to libero duties while coming back from injury. Newcomer Alyssa Ostrow led M-A with eight kills while returning senior Katelyn Doherty added seven kills and eight digs with sophomore setter Kaitlin Tavarez finishing with 21 assists and eight digs.

In San Jose, visiting Pinewood lost a 2-0 lead and suffered a 14-25, 18-25, 25-21, 26-24, 15-8 nonleague loss to San Jose High in a season opener.

Girls' golf
Sophomore Jessica Koenig, a former Sacred Heart Prep water polo player, made the most of her transition to the golf team leading the Gators over Mercy-Burlingame, 249-319, in the first match of the 2012 girls' West Bay Athletic League (Foothill Division) golf season for the two teams.

Koenig shot a 42 to earn medalist honors while Maddy Ellison contributed a 48 for the Gators on the par-36 Sharon Heights Country Club course.

— Palo Alto Online Sports

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