By Kelly Jones
Record Correspondent
STOCKTON — It was the end of a long day of tournament volleyball and St. Mary’s found itself trailing Rockin-Whitney 17-11 in their second match.
St. Mary’s had won the opener 25-15. Rather than accept a third match, the Rams rallied, tying it at 18-all and winning 26-24 with a punctuating spike by senior Natalie Cortopassi.
St. Mary’s won three of its four matches Saturday at Lincoln as part of the eighth Stockton Classic. Twenty top-tier Northern California teams were at Lincoln, with 56 others spread out at Lodi, Bear Creek, Chavez and Edison high schools.
Winning its final game of the day was a positive sign for St. Mary’s coach Jayne McHugh. The Rams (25-5, 5-1 SJAA) will be back in action Monday, hosting Tokay in Tri-City Athletic League play.
“It was really nice to see them have that grit,” McHugh said of her squad. “We talk about it a lot – when we pull together and use each other’s strength, we’re hard to slow down.”
Ngozi Nwabuzah was named to the all-tournament team, finishing with 37 kills, 43 digs, 5.5 blocks and three aces in four games. St. Mary’s lost to Belmont-Notre Dame (25-13, 25-22) before defeating Rocklin (25-18, 17-15), Menlo Atherton (25-11, 24-26, 15-10) and Whitney.
“This is a really hard tournament,” Cortopassi said. “There are some great teams here that are No. 1 or 2 in their leagues. It was so much fun to play them all, to get really good digs against really good blockers.”
San Jose-Archibishop Mitty, ranked sixth in the state, won the tournament for the third time in four appearances, beating familiar West Catholic League opponent and No. 9 San Jose-Valley Christian 23-25, 25-15, 15-13.
The Monarchs are led by former Lincoln coach and Stagg High alum Bret Almazan-Cezar, who was happy to bring his team “home.” Almazan-Cezar won two Northern California titles with Lincoln (1998-99).
“What it does is brings the best teams in California that we’ll see after section playoffs,” he said of the tournament. “They’ve done a nice job of finding that level of competition. We don’t always get to play these teams and they provide nice facilities.”
Mitty (18-4) boasts six Division I college-bound players. Junior Candice Denny was named the most valuable player and sophomore Nicole Liddle was named to the all-tournament team as the Monarchs won all four of their matches Saturday.
“We were upset this week in league in five (games),” Almazcan-Cezar said. “We needed to refocus and figure out what we need to do in this last push (before playoffs).
“We played some very good teams. They’re showing us we’re doing what we need to be doing.”
Valley Christian (18-6) also had two players on the all-tournament team — under-18 Team USA player Ronika Stone, who has committed to Oregon, and setter Tori Dilfer, bound for Texas Christian. Dilfer’s famous father, Super Bowl champion quarterback and Fresno State alum Trent Dilfer, was among the parents on hand.
Lincoln coach Garren Allala was not as concerned with the Trojans’ results — they split four games after playing twice in an optional bracket Friday — as he was with what they learned. He used the tournament as a teaching tool for his TCAL-undefeated team.
“A lot of them have never played this high of a level before,” Allala said. “I think half the battle out here is getting them to believe they can compete and win against every team. A big part is mental, so I’m constantly pushing them.
“It was a good opportunity, at this tournament, to really program them, get them in that mindset, to have mental toughness through adversity. When someone is in your face, how are you going to deal with that?”
Lincoln (19-9, 6-0 SJAA) seemed to respond well. The Trojans beat Turlock (25-18, 25-20), lost to Oakland-Bishop O’Dowd (25-16, 25-23) and San Francisco-St. Ignatius (21-25, 25-18, 15-11) before finishing with a come-from-behind victory against Marin Catholic (17-25, 28-26, 15-11).
Allala called a timeout for a pep talk when Lincoln trailed 24-19 in the second match against Marin Catholic. Junior Amilya Thompson said the Trojans got the message.
“He got us all together and said ‘If we’re going to end this, let’s not go out on a bad note,’” Thompson said. “We got together and pushed. We’re good as long as we stay mentally focused when we’re really tired. We have to keep going.”
Chavez High took eighth place in its division, beating Concord High 2-0 (25-16, 25-10) and losing to Folsom 2-0 (25-10, 26-24). Christy Khoone had 49 assists and 10 aces, Lillian Willis had 40 digs and four aces, and Lili Ita had 37 digs, 30 kills and seven blocks for the Titans