By Ben Goldstein
Having finished the regular season with a perfect league record, the girlsâ varsity volleyball team enters the CIF playoffs tomorrow on a 12-game winning streak.
The Wolverines received a first round bye in CIF. They will play the winner of last nightâs matchup between Brea Olinda and Los Osos tomorrow in the second round at 7 p.m. in Taper Gym.
The team capped off the regular season last Thursday with a victory over Notre Dame on Senior Night, clinching the league title. This was the teamâs first time going undefeated in league play since 2002, finishing 10-0 in league and 22-4 overall.
âIt was really bittersweet to play my last league game after having been on this team for four years,â middle blocker Cathryn Quinn â08 said.
Quinn, one of 10 seniors and a leader on the team, has committed to Princeton for next year.
âPrinceton has been my first choice for about the last year because it combines academics and athletics perfectly for me,â she said.
Before the winning streak began, the team traveled to San Jose where it participated in the Archbishop Mitty tournament Sept. 28 and 29. The squad reached the finals, where it lost to Santa Barbara, but the real highlight for the team came in the tournamentâs semifinals. The Wolverines defeated Archbishop Mitty high school, ranked second in the nation, in three straight games.
âIt was an incredible feeling to beat them at their gym in three games and kick them out of their own tournament,â Quinn said.
The Oct. 2 victory over Alemany marked the beginning of league play and the teamâs 12-game winning streak. Over the course of the streak, the team won two matches against Flintridge Sacred Heart, a squad widely recognized as the Wolverineâs toughest competition in the Mission League.
âUsually we tie for first place in the Mission League with [Flintridge Sacred Heart], but we had a mindset of becoming league champions so we put everything we had into those matches,â middle blocker Krystle Higgins â09 said. The second victory at Flintridge on Oct. 25 was one of the Wolverinesâ closest matches of the season, with the team winning in five games.
âThat was a really tough match. Both teams played really well,â head coach Adam Black said. âMarin [Dennis â08] came up with a lot of big time digs in that fourth and fifth game when our backs were up against the wall.â
 Black gave credit to the contributions of the entire team, but he said that outside hitter Megan Norton â10 has been âone of the top players throughout the whole season.â Norton, the only sophomore on the senior-heavy team, tied her career high of 26 kills in the Oct. 25 match at Flintridge.
A setback for the team has been KC Kanoffâs â08 ankle injury early in the season. Recently, she began practicing with the team and hopes to return for CIF.