Sonora's Girls Volleyball Team Wins Their First State Title

By Jim McCue | Photos by James K. Leash

Experience changes everything. And when the right group of players carries that experience into one final quest for glory, the results can be momentous.

For the Sonora girls volleyball team, the result was a California Interscholastic Federation Division IV Volleyball Championship and lasting memories from the Happiest Place on Earth. The Wildcats followed up a wild ride through their 2014 season with the chance to celebrate their state title on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.

“This year, our goal was to win state,” Sonora head coach Kim Evans said. “There was a target on our back (after winning the 2013 Sac-Joaquin Section title) and there was more pressure on us.”

The Wildcats handled the pressure with the maturity, chemistry and experience of a roster featuring nine returners, including seven seniors. In 2013, Sonora rallied from a 2-0 deficit and won the SJS Div. IV title to cap a dream season.

“Last year was a Cinderella ride,” Evans said. “This year, it almost got to the point that it was hard to enjoy the successes as they happened.”

Part of the difficulty in enjoying success was a rash of injuries suffered by the Wildcats throughout the season. Junior middle blocker Kelsie Evans and senior outside hitters Shannon Friend and Savannah Lawrence either missed time or were limited on the court with various ailments. Evans was forced to shut down her hitters’ big swings by limiting their hits to tips and rolls on the outside.

“I have coached for 15 years and never had a season with injuries like this,” Evans said. “We were very quiet about the injuries and still had the girls out on the floor.”

For many teams, such adversity could cause widespread panic or a significant decrease in performance, but Sonora overcame the challenges and remained calm while turning the perceived negatives into positives.

“We weren’t as stressed out about the injuries because the coaches helped prepare us mentally and with different lineups in case we had injuries,” senior libero Bailey Henington said. “We learned how to play without some big hitters and blockers.”

That calm and increased depth created a lineup that few opponents could conquer. The Wildcats’ offense was so balanced among all of its players that teams could not game plan to stop any single player.

Check out the rest of this article in our latest issue of SportStars Magazine: Sonora’s Girls Volleyball Team