Beach Volleyball (Girls) | 5/4/2024 12:13:00 PM

The following excerpt is from the San Diego Union Tribune article, "Cathedral Catholic captures Open Division beach volleyball title; Scripps Ranch, Carlsbad winners."


Cathedral Catholic coach Juliana Conn is used to facing Torrey Pines in the CIF San Diego Section girls beach volleyball championships, having done so in each of the last two years.

On Saturday, the two schools faced off with the section's first Open Division title on the line at Miramar College.

Cathedral Catholic, the two-time reigning Division I champions, was the No. 1 seed.

Torrey Pines secured the first point in straight sets, 21-11, 21-8 before the Dons took the next three points to win their third straight section title.

"(It's) the best feeling," Conn said after the match. "This group was young, super willing to learn, worked hard, so it was more special than the other ones just for the fact that we're working with a much younger group that had a lot of progress during the season."

The turning point in the match came when Aubrielle Barajas and Rilyn Morales of Torrey Pines faced the Dons' Isabella Ayers '26 and Kailani Welch '27 with the Falcons owning a 1-0 lead.

The score was tied 1-1 score heading to a critical third set. Barajas and Morales, who had a 20-13 second-set win, took a 12-10 lead and were three points away from giving their team a 2-0 lead.
 
Ayers and Welch had other plans. The duo tied it up at 14-14 before taking the final two points to even up the match at one apiece.

Welch said she and Ayers had to increase their focus and energy as the match progressed, especially late.

"We decided to turn it up and play for each other in the third set and take it home," Welch said.

"We want to win this for all of us. So, it was definitely good to turn up in the third set."

Securing the winning point for the Dons were Gracen Daniels '25 and Maria Neves '24, who logged a two-set win over Aubrie Dingman and Mila Bryant.