Colusa defeats UPrep
The players can't change their hairstyles and their pony tails have to be tied with a zebra print bow. Their coach has used the same pen to keep stats all season and organizes the pregame warm-ups down to the second. The Colusa High volleyball team as a whole wanted to pray before its big playoff match but decided against it — because it hadn't been done all year and could mess up the routine.
Oh yeah, the Redskins are sure superstitious. But it's working. After not winning a playoff game since 2004, these girls, quirks and all, are one victory away from reaching the section championship.
Cheyenne Rogers had 10 aces and six kills, Caroline Meyers tallied five kills and five blocks and the fourth-seeded Redskins topped No. 5 University Prep 25-20, 25-16, 17-25, 25-17 at home on Tuesday.
The win sets up a semifinal match with No. 1 seed and defending Northern Section Division V champion Hamilton on Thursday. It's a daunting task to play the Braves, who rolled Trinity in their quarterfinal, but facing the powerhouse wasn't on the mind of these nine girls after they finished off the Panthers.
These girls were too busy enjoying the moment to fret about the next step.
"It's my senior year and it's the best team we've had," Meyers said. "We get along, play hard and enjoy each other."
They've also improved. This is a group that went 9-14 last year as they learned how to go from a "just hit it over the net" mentality to a more fluid attacking unit. That was coach Erica Lemanager's goal when she took over the team in 2009. She's a former Yuba College blocker who went to state with the 49ers, and now she's experiencing playoff success in her first head coaching job.
She's a quiet coach, opting to point to her temple and say "use your head" instead of getting wrapped up in the moment. So when the Panthers rattled off a game-three win and put together a run in the final frame, she let her girls work out of the situation.
"They're starting to get a deeper understanding of volleyball," Lemenager said.
Rogers came through with one of her best games of the season, going 28 of 28 from the service line in addition to leading the team in kills. Katie Mobley finished with four blocks and Emily Mobley tallied 15 assists.
Colusa's (18-9) last postseason victory came six years ago when the 16th-seeded Redskins upset No. 1 Hayfork in the first round. While they've been the favorite over the last two matches, that feeling of success is still there for this group, who come Thursday will do the same choreographed hand-slaps before the match.
One more superstition in hopes of success.
