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St. Anthony girls’ volleyball kept its season alive with a win over San Jacinto (15-10) on Saturday evening, sweeping the visiting Tigers by a score of 26-24, 25-17, 25-21.
The Saints (17-16-1) have won consecutive home matches to open the CIF-SS Division 5 playoffs, and are headed to the quarterfinals on Wednesday night.
“I think our defense has definitely fallen into place,” said St. Anthony head coach Monyea Barber after the win. “They’re understanding balance a little bit better now, and our hitters have been more versatile … A lot of our practices are focused on tooling, using the block, having block visuals, just because not all of our hitters are super tall. We’d love for them to be a threat regardless, not just because they’re tall.”
St. Anthony was able to spread out its offensive production, as junior setter Perla Wong had 29 assists and got three separate hitters into double-figures during the three-set sweep.
Senior Brooke Jondle led the way with a dozen kills for the Saints, while Brianna Mbire had11 kills and Quinn Bell added an even 10.
Coming out of the unforgiving Del Rey League, the Saints went 0-8 this season against the rest of their league rivals, and Barber says that level of competition has prepared them well for the postseason. After the Saints dropped their opening set of the playoffs on Thursday night, they’ve won six sets in a row to reach the CIF quarterfinals for the first time since 2019.
“We always walked into every league game with our heads high, and we always gave 110 percent,” said Barber, who noted that the other four Del Rey League teams are in either Division 2 or 3 in this year’s playoffs. “I told them, regardless of the outcome, this game’s going to make us better. You’re playing against people that are going to challenge you. They’re going to make you mentally drained by the end of it, and I feel like that helps us now, because we’re so drilled at having those opponents that challenge us every single point.”
St. Anthony will await the winner of Valencia and El Toro in the quarterfinals. If Valencia wins, the Saints will be back at home for the third match in a row. If El Toro wins, the Saints will hit the road on Wednesday night.
