November 21, 2022

Cathedral Catholic’s wire-to-wire national championship is official! Our first national rankings of the season featured the San Diego school as the No. 1 team in the country. Going undefeated after winning the California state championship over the weekend, the Dons finish where they started – on top. You can read more about Cathedral Catholic’s season and championship performance here. As many states had already concluded their respective seasons, there isn’t much change in the final national rankings. We wrote about Cornerstone Christian TX and St. Francis/Mountain View CA possibly having a shot at the national championship should St. Francis upset Cathedral Catholic this past Saturday. Cornerstone finishes second; St. Francis ends No. 7. The biggest change came with Dripping Springs, which came out of nowhere to claim the Texas 6A state title over the weekend. That triumph propelled Dripping Springs into the rankings for the first time, up to No. 16. The Texas 5A state champs in Colleyville Heritage also made the final cut, coming in at No. 32. Of course, all rankings are subjective. The important note about the final high school rankings pertains to the state playoffs. We do not rank teams higher than any opponent they’ve lost to during the state playoffs or relative postseason playoffs. It may or not be fair and it certainly skews the rankings. Some very good schools which had exceptional seasons proved themselves more than worthy of a Top 50 ranking but just happened to lose at the wrong time. vballrecruiter.com TOP 50 1. Cathedral Catholic CA 2. Cornerstone Christian TX 3. Hamilton Southeastern IN 4. Prestonwood Christian TX 5. Marian MI 6. Washburn Rural KS 7. St. Francis/Mountain View CA 8. Mira Costa CA 9. Mother McAuley IL 10. Sierra Canyon CA *** 11. Yorktown IN 12. Aquinas KS 13. McCutcheon IN 14. Lafayette MO 15. Marymount CA 16. Dripping Springs TX 17. Santa Fe FL 18. St. James Academy KS 19. Papillion-LaVista South NE 20. Liberty North MO *** 21. Fayetteville AR 22. ‘Iolani HI 23. Ursuline Academy OH 24. Valor Christian CO 25. Magnificat OH 26. Brebeuf Jesuit IN 27. Liberty MO 28. Corona del Sol AZ 29. Millbrook NC 30. Notre Dame Academy KY *** 31. Marist IL 32. Colleyville Heritage TX 33. North Raleigh Christian Academy NC 34. Eureka MO 35. Assumption KY 36. Flint Hill VA 37. Torrey Pines CA 38. Benet Academy IL 39. Lakewood CA 40. Mater Dei CA *** 41. Tompkins TX 42. Horizon AZ 43. Timpview UT 44. Wayzata MN 45. Venice FL 46. Millennium AZ 47. Cleveland TN 48. Barrington IL 49. Mountain View UT 50. St. Ursula Academy OH *** HONORABLE MENTION Archbishop Mitty CA Palos Verdes CA Branson CA Bountiful UT Clearwater Central Catholic FL Westminster Christian FL Benton AR Divine Savior Holy Angels WI Oconomowoc WI Cypress Ranch TX Prosper TX Omaha Westside NE Lincoln Southwest NE Western Christian IO Dike-New Hartford IO Jesuit OR Sheldon OR Middle Creek NC Punahou HI Reagan NC North Gwinnett GA Redondo Union CA Newport Harbor CA Liberty AZ Huntley IL Mercy McAuley OH Rock Bridge MO Hamilton AZ Mount Notre Dame OH Mercy MI Skyline MI Iowa City Liberty IO Xavier IO Ankeny IO Lyons IL Mercy KY Lakeville North MN Northfield MN Marshall MN Skutt Catholic NE Pickens SC Dorman SC Cardinal Newman SC Nolensville TN Knoxville Catholic TN Pope GA Buford GA Alpharetta GA Sequoyah GA Lake Catholic OH Rock Canyon CO Heritage CO Legend CO Chaparral CO Trinity Catholic FL Olathe Northwest KS Lincoln-Way East IL Vista Murrieta CA Huntington Beach CA Alemany CA Calvary Christian FL Tampa Prep FL Bryon Nelson TX Bishop Watterson OH Ardrey Kell NC Kamehameha HI Moanalua HI Jackson Academy MS Ponte Vedra FL O’Connor AZ Appleton North WI Burlington WI Hamilton WI Keller TX Guyer TX Highland Park TX Plano West TX Bishop Lynch TX

Congrats to vballrecruiter.com’s 2022 High School National Champions the Cathedral Catholic Dons! Cathedral Catholic (42-0) completed a nearly-perfect season in which it lost just one set by sweeping undefeated St. Francis/Mountain View, 25-21, 25-16, 25-23, in Saturday’s California’s Open Division state championship match at Santiago Canyon College in Orange. Let’s take a look at what made for Cathedral Catholic’s first national championship! THE BACKGROUND Cathedral Catholic saw the blueprint first hand in 2021. The Dons walked off the court after suffering a four-set loss to Elia Rubin-led Marymount in the state semifinals. The Sailors closed out its undefeated season and national championship in the next outing by sweeping Archbishop Mitty in the final. Given that for 2022 Cathedral Catholic would be returning plenty of talent, including players like Julia Blyashov (Stanford), Milan Bayless (Colgate), Ryleigh Patterson (Harvard), and Noemie Glover (Oregon), and had players like setter Amanda Saeger (DePaul), middle Jenna Hanes (Michigan) and libero Maya Evens ready to step into starting roles, the Dons would no doubt be the No. 1 team in the nation to begin this fall as they sought their own storybook season.   “Definitely after the loss last year we came back very motivated,” Blyashov said. “We wanted to win it very badly. Last year we thought we were going to win and it was such a heartbreaking loss it motivated us for this season. We were focused on every game and didn’t want to get comfortable so we continued doing that. We had so much fun along the way. It was so awesome to be able to do it.” THE SPRAINED ANKLE Blyashov was not yet committed to Stanford when Cathedral lost to Marymount last fall. Once she announced her future college the storyline was obvious. We could be looking at a Stanford-bound stud once again leading her team to an undefeated high school national championship. What was less obvious is a sprained ankle sidelining Blyashov for the state playoffs and suddenly putting Cathedral’s immaculate season in jeopardy. Cathedral Catholic needed four points to finish off a sweep of Torrey Pines in the CIF San Diego Section final on Nov. 4 when suddenly Blyashov went down. Coach Juliana Conn said no one thought much of it right away, thinking she would be okay. However, the next day Blyashov’s ankle was swollen enough she would be out of the upcoming state tournament.   It was uh-oh time, as the road to the national championship took possibly a devastating twist. “Obviously, it wasn’t the best timing for an injury but injuries happen. They are part of sports,” Blyashov said. “I looked to my team and they were so supportive. I’m so happy for everyone. We have the best team. It was so easy to be happy and celebrate. It was awesome. Obviously, it would have been better not to be injured but this team is so special I wouldn’t take this night back at all.” THE DEPTH Here is what Conn said after Cathedral Catholic captured the Durango Fall Classic title in September without using a set lineup as she rotated players from set to set and match to match: “It’s a big group and sometimes with that many good players it can be hard to accept smaller roles. But this group is embracing it and girls are waiting for their chance while still supporting whoever is on the court. The feedback this weekend from other coaches was great. They were telling us how engaged our bench is.” Conn certainly had options. It was typical to see Blyashov at outside, Evens at libero, Hanes anchoring one of the middle positions and Saeger setting, though Conn could bring senior Tehya Maeva in at any point to run the offense. We could see Patterson in the middle or on the right. It could be senior Mia Compass in the middle or senior Kapiolani Coleman on the right. Juniors Niki Egan, Ayva Moi and Dakota Conway all had roles as defensive specialists. Seniors Milan Bayless and Cate Schnell had their roles, with Bayless often hitting front row on the left and Schnell playing across the back. Both had to take on more with Blyashov out, as Bayless took on the OH1 position and Schnell started hitting across the front row too. Through it all, there was no going wrong. “It’s been the talk of the season,” Conn said after Saturday night’s victory. “Everyone keeps asking how I’m keeping everyone happy. I think everyone knew there was a role to be filled and everyone was accepting of that. Whenever someone went down or someone had a bad game, someone would step in their position and they would be happy for them. “At the beginning of the season we talked about how we all know they start for their clubs and could be a six-rotation player on any team, but we are all here together and we need to be able to handle that or it could go really south. From Day 1, we were deep and we would fight it out in practice and the best one was going to be playing. It doesn’t mean it was bad for them (if they aren’t playing), they are still helping on the bench cheering and being positive and when they get their chance they went in and did a good job. “When Julia went down everyone was super worried but I knew we would get the next person and they would be ready to play and that was definitely the highlight of the season.” THE MOMENT OF TRUTH Without Blyashov there was no doubt Cathedral Catholic’s depth would be tested in the state playoffs. First was Lakewood, then a rematch with Torrey Pines before facing Mira Costa in the semifinals. The Dons swept both Lakewood and Torrey Pines, but Mira Costa was on a different level and represented the toughest challenge yet. Mira Costa captured the Ann Kang Invitational and finished runner-up at the Nike TOC Southwest in October. Mira Costa