The top-seeded Palo Alto girls' volleyball team advanced to its second straight Central Coast Section Division I championship match with a 25-15, 25-18, 25-20 victory over No. 4 Salinas (22-9) on Thursday in the section semifinals at Milpitas High. The triumph gave Paly coach Dave Winn his 300th victory as a head coach.
Melanie Wade led the Vikings with 19 kills and fellow senior Maddie Kuppe added 11, along with eight digs. Senior Caroline Martin contributed six kills and senior Kimmy Whitson had 38 assists.
The Vikings (32-3) will play for a second straight section crown on Saturday at Independence High in San Jose at 2:30 p.m. Palo Alto can make some program history by winning two straight CCS titles, as last year's crown was the team's first. The Vikings are now 73-4 since the start of the 2010 season, which ended in a CIF Division I state championship for head coach Dave Winn and his team.
Palo Alto will take on No. 2 Menlo-Atherton (29-5), which swept No. 3 Carlmont (25-10), 25-13, 25-12, 25-20, thus setting up a rematch of last year's CCS title match between the Vikings and Bears.
posted by Palo Alto Online on Nov 17, 2011 at 8:01 pm
