The Sacred Heart Prep girls volleyball team won the Bronze Division championship at the Milpitas/Independence Spikefest I on Saturday, beating rival Menlo School, 25-20, 25-22, in the title match.

The Gators (4-1) finished ninth overall while Menlo (4-2) was 10th. Woodside finished 22nd, Gunn was 24th and Castilleja won the Green Division title to finish 29th overall.

Sacred Heart Prep’s lone loss was to overall tournament champion Mitty, 15-25, 25-21, 15-6, in the second match of the day.

The Gators host Hillsdale in a nonleague match at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Menlo travels to play defending CCS Division I champion Menlo-Atherton at 6:15 p.m. Tuesday.

Castilleja (2-4) travels to Gunn (2-4) for a 6:30 p.m. match Thursday.

Natalie Zimits led SH Prep with 37 kills and 11 blocks while Cate Desler recorded 36 kills and 12 aces.

Sammy Phillips added 20 kills and 12 blocks, while setters Haley Martella and Alexa Thompson combined for 92 assists and libero Caroline Caruso had 37 digs.

Menlo, coming off a season-opening win against Aragon on Thursday, went 3-2 at the Spikefest. The Knights defeated St. Francis, 25-23, 22-25, 15-13, before falling to Sacred Heart Prep.

“I think that we showed some good volleyball, but most of all, this tournament has been good because it showed us what we have to work on in the next weeks,” Menlo first-year coach Marco Paglialunga said. “Our block and defense is improving. We have to find better solutions in a couple of situations in side-out and hitting. We also have to improve our consistency in serving. That will make the difference in our next matches for sure.

In pool play, the Knights finished with a third seed. Menlo opened by beating Woodside 25-15, 25-16, and then lost to Sacred Heart Cathedral 25-15, 19-25, 15-9. The Knights followed with a 25-22, 28-26 win over Los Altos.

Senior Mia Vandermeer posted 21 kills and finished with a .313 hitting percentage with 17 blocks (1.4 per) in 12 sets.

Sophomore outside Sianna Houhgton had 19 kills, 39 digs and seven aces for the Knights. Junior Ashley Dreyer had a team-high 26 kills and libero Jessica Houghton, also a senior, picked up 60 digs in 12 sets.

Junior Kristin Sellers finished with 48 assists and sophomore Selina Xu had 47.

“I loved the team reaction in the matches against Los Altos and St. Francis, ” he added. “They showed that they can fight and find solutions under pressure. We finished these intense first two weeks of preparation with more self-confidence and more certainty than before.”

Gunn was led by Tara Tracy, who is averaging about 16 kills a match. Dila Kurt averaged about 17 digs.

Woodside (2-4) was led by Pascale Tregon, who averaged nine kills. Jordan Crevelt, who competed at the USA Junior Olympic track and field championships over the summer, averaged eight digs.

Mitty beat Valley Christian in the championship match and defending Division IV champs Notre Dame-Belmont finished third.

By Palo Alto Online Sports

By Palo Alto Online Sports

By Palo Alto Online Sports

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