Marina girls’ volleyball taking its ‘shot,’ advances to CIF Division 5 quarterfinals
The Marina girls’ volleyball program was a force to be reckoned with two decades ago, but the Vikings had rarely been heard from since.
Marina won the CIF Southern Section Division I-A title in 2002, and the last playoff appearance came the year after that, according to school athletic director Nick Racklin.
The Vikings are in the process of putting the decades-long struggle behind them after a straight-sets victory on Monday landed them a spot in the Division 5 quarterfinals.
Senior outside hitter Dominique Vadeboncoeur had a match-high 14 kills to go with two service aces, as Marina dispatched of visiting Monrovia 25-10, 26-24, 25-18 in the second round at home.
Marina (16-13), an at-large selection after finishing third in the Wave League, will play host to top-seeded Lancaster Quartz Hill (28-6), the Golden League champion, on Wednesday.
Jake Nuneviller, the head coach of the Vikings, has said this will be his last season with the program, but he is looking to go out with a bang.
“It’s exciting,” Nuneviller said. “This is what we were preparing for. There was a group of girls that came in together as freshmen, that have been working together for four years now. They’re all seniors now, and this was kind of the year we were gunning for, so to be here when we didn’t even necessarily know if we were going to make the playoffs — because we didn’t get the automatic [bid] — that was very exciting.
“For the longest time, since I’ve been here, I’ve been saying, ‘We just got to get a shot,’ so we’ve got our shot. Now we got to prove ourselves.”
Marina pounced on Monrovia (21-12) early, rattling off 10 consecutive points to put the opening set out of reach.
The Wildcats challenged the Vikings in the second set, as serve receive and passing issues had senior setter Jordan Packer sprinting through the front row to set up the offense. An ace by Monrovia’s Kaylee Morrison erased the last of three straight set points for Marina, but Vadeboncoeur answered with a kill. Packer’s ace on the next point secured the set.
Tough jump serving made the difference late for the Vikings, who used a run of five successive aces by Jalissa Costa to break the final tie of the match and pull away for the victory.
“It feels good,” Costa, a senior outside hitter, said. “Not a lot of people jump serve, so it’s fun having something that kind of wows the [crowd] but also gets points when my team needs it. Our coach told us to shut them down during that last set and not let them come back, and I feel like jump serving really helps.”
Packer produced 27 assists and four aces. Junior middle blocker Jenna Zaffino and Costa each had six kills, and sophomore defensive specialist Lauren Betts added four aces.
Vadeboncoeur said she was in attendance when the Marina boys’ volleyball program won its first CIF championship in 2021. She has allowed herself to imagine what it would be like to play in such a match.
“We’ve all talked about how exciting it would be to be in the same position because when we went, … it was packed,” Vadeboncoeur said. “Then everybody ran on the court, and it was such an exciting experience to watch. People you go to school with and play club with went. They were happy. We were also happy.”
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