MiraCosta climbs regional rankings to #7, eyes on a State run!

The Spartans (15-4) in just their second year of starting volleyball back up at MiraCosta, are among the State's top teams. The Spartans, led by Head Coach, Kristen Wright, are ranked no. seven in the southern region of the state in the latest state rankings. "We're peaking at the right time," Head Coach, Kristen Wright explains. 'We've had an excellent year beginning with our pre-season. We put our squad to the test up against three well-coached, Orange Coast Conference perinneal powerhouses: Irivne Valley, Golden West, and Fullerton. We managed to get the job done against some highly respected programs, including last years state champions, IVC."

That is when MiraCosta put their name on the map. Heading into conference, the Spartans were stunned, after being up two games to zero and close to sealing a three set victory on their home court, Palomar charged back on an eight point run which resulted in a third set victory. Palomar upset the Spartans in a two point, 5th set match. "That match was humbling. We had some internal dynamics that we were able to work on because of that loss. However, I was most impressed with the resiliance; to drive until almost mid-night to Santa Barbara and pick up the next day and come back with two outstanding wins against Golden West and Fullerton on the road is a testemant to this team."

The Pacific Coast Athletic Conference is arguably the best it's been in years. Four of the teams are ranked regionally in the top 10. MiraCosta is one of those teams. MiraCosta has only lost to two teams all season, each twice: Palomar and Grossmont. The Spartans finish up conference this week, at Southwestern today, and host San Diego Mesa on Friday. The Spartans previously beat both teams in three and four sets, respectively. "We are focused on one match at a time. Right now that's each of our last two conference matches. We are wanting to see improvement and test the different line-ups we have which will be put to the test as we compete for a state title."

The Spartans have positioned themselves to compete for a state title. They have a sound balanced system behind the trio of key attackers including: 6'2" OH, Brianna Sizemore, 5'8" OH, Cady Francis, 6'1" MB, Madie Sims, and a veteran competitor, Jesse Zieg, running the offense. Other sound scorers are: 5'11" opposite, Nichole Alderman, Freshman  5'10" OH Leah McManus, Freshman 5'10" MB/OH Elayna Cramer, and 5'11" MB Breanna Kirklen. Libero Maile Sellers is holding down the back court in the latter part of the season, as the Spartans moved their cagey ball-control libero to Outside Hitter. The high-flying outside hitter was among the states top Liberos as she was averaging over 5 digs a set and passing over a 2.3 on the year. They are now able to use her to score additionally. Francis is now scoring 4.14 kills/set as an outside. The tandem between Francis and Sizemore is scoring just shy of 8 kills a set. The Spartans are deep with several athletes able to score between 1.5-1.8 kills/set. That's why the Spartans are fourth in the state in kills/set and are among the top ten point scorers in the state.

The state rankings will be released next Friday around 1PM. This will be the first year for an 18 team regional "play-in" bracket. The State Regional Preliminary round will be on Tuesday Nov. 24th. The winners with advance to the Regional Quarter finals on Saturday Nov. 28th. The winners of that will advance to the state regional semi-fianls on Tuesday, December 1st. The two winners of the semi-finals in the south and north will advance to the state championship tournament at the College of the Canyons on December 4th and 5th.