Cathedral Catholic’s facilities team may have to do a safety inspection of the Caver Center wood floor Monday morning.
And Mae Kordas may be receiving a bill in the mail.
The senior outside/opposite/middle/stud bounced no less than five balls as part of her match-high 24 kills in a thrilling 22-25, 25-19, 25-12, 25-16 win over visiting Redondo Union in the CIF State Open Division regional semifinals on Saturday. The Dons (44-3) advance to host Santa Ana Mater Dei (37-4, MaxPreps No. 2) in Tuesday’s regional championship with a berth in the state championship on the line.
“I told the girls we need their block to believe Mae is going to get the set so we have the option of going away from her,” Dons coach Juliana Conn said. “But our girls at the beginning were a little tight. So I turned to (setters) Kale’a (Lee) and Lauren (Hanson) and said, Let’s key off Mae. When we figured that out, we knew (Redondo Union) was having a hard time finding Mae. We went to Mae, and today she had the best match of her career.”
The Yale-bound Kordas got kills from both pins and got most of her bounce kills from the high two set that is extremely rare at high levels of volleyball.
It’s a play the nation’s eighth-ranked team has learned to run to near-perfection thanks to the trust Lee and Hanson have in Kordas.
“I kind of wanted to take matters into my own hands,” said Kordas, who added three blocks and two aces. “So if we’re going to get out of this, it’s up to me. Recently teams have been bunching in and blocking me on the twos. We have some good hitters on our pins so this team wasn’t bunching in as much so I had some freedom.”
Redondo Union (28-11) had no answer for Kordas, or any of the Dons attackers for that matter.
Junior opposite Sophia Johnson had 10 kills, consistently hitting line shots the Sea Hawks couldn’t dig. Jojo Wilson had five kills and two blocks at crucial moments. Kensley Hennessy had two blocks and five kills, including being 3-for-3 on slide attacks.
“We were all a little bit nervous at first,” Johnson said. “Obviously Mae is a huge part of our team, but it’s a group effort wanting it that bad and having the drive to do it.”
The Dons jumped out to a 10-6 lead in set one. It was back-and-forth the rest of the set, with the Dons holding onto a 21-20 lead after a Madyson McCarthy kill in serve receive. The Sea Hawks dominated the net at that point and cruised to a 25-22 win.
The Dons found their inner fire to open set two, opening leads of 4-1 and 12-9 before the visitors fought back to tie it at 14. The Dons went on a 6-0 run — the largest one of the match for either side — behind Kordas’ two kills and a stuff block and Hennessy’s kill and stuff block. Conn made a key coaching move at 20-17, calling a timeout and subbing in Kale’a Lee to set from middle front.
It paid off as she set Kordas and watched as the senior bounced it for the kill. Hennessy added a kill on a slide and the Dons remained focused with a 25-19 set win.
Senior libero Maya Evens finished with 25 digs, including several diving digs in sets No. 3 and 4.
The Dons were downright nasty in the fourth. They had five stuff blocks in the set, including back-to-back by Allison Dzieciuch for a 12-5 lead. Kordas was otherworldly with eight kills, two blocks and an ace in the set.
“If you play relaxed but you follow the game plan, you’re going to be OK,” Conn said. “If you stay with it, nobody’s going to beat you.”