Postscript from State Women's Volleyball Tourney

The appearance of bench stuffed toy mascots were a side story to Fresno City College' s women's volleyball state title run in 2021. This year's champ San Diego Mesa also got in on the mascot act during the 3C2A Championships at Mt. San Antonio College Dec. 1-3.

During the regular season, the Olympians first started giving out a toy banana to their own players of the week. The players decided to name the mascot "Herbert Garrison III" according to Mesa head coach Bobbi Jo Stall-Vest.

"It evolved into a big thing for the players," Stall-Vest said. "We had a player have a legal name change and that prompted them to come up with using Garrison as everyone was first calling the banana just Herb or Herbskie. Then they all ended up winning a giant stuffed toy monkey at Dave & Busters to go with Herb. Nothing special on the monkey name...just simply 'Mon-Kay.' The bench players loved dancing at timeouts with our mascots and it definitely loosened our team up a bit during our playoff run."

Fresno didn't get past the quarterfinals, but its good luck charms have helped the team to two state titles, the other in 2016. "Ramsy the Ram " made another trip to this year's state tourney with a few others joining in.

Ramsy the Ram on the left is a regular visitor at state tourneys

Fresno City College mascots have made an appearance at recent state championships.

San Diego's Mesa's stuffed toy Monkey and banana Herbert Garrison III take a pose at the 3C2A State Women's Volleyball Championships.

MESA STATISICAL WINNER AS WELL

From a statistical standpoint, Mesa proved to be tops in several areas. The Olympians led the state in team kills, set assists, and total points while totaling more block kills than anyone else. The program's 29 victories and .935 win percentage are school records. 

Mesa swept all nine sets it played at the state tourney, matching the 9-0 feat through the tourney performed a year earlier by Feather River in its 2022 championship run.

Most Valuable Player Kailyn Jager of Mesa set a state tourney record for highest kills per set with 57 in nine for a 6.33 average. That eclipsed Irvine Valley's Olivia Aguilar's mark of 6.17 in the Lasers' 2017 state tourney trip as she scored 74 kills in 12 sets. Aguilar also was a tourney MVP when she set a tourney record for most kills in a championship match with 30 v. San Joaquin Delta.

COACH-STATE TOURNEY CONNECTION 

After the state preview mentioned that 2023 state tourney head coaches Stall-Vest (SD Mesa 2006), Grossmont's Brooke Callahan (2014) and Irvine Valley's Anna Unke (2019) plus Fresno assistant coach Kelsee Montagna (Cabrillo, 2013) and Irvine Valley assistant Hannah Matt (2014) all had played at previous state women's volleyball tournaments, Ventura head coach Brad Lyans mentioned that he too saw playing action at a state men's volleyball tourney in 1999 with Los Angeles Pierce College. 

Only Montagna and Matt were members of a state champion as players. The only person to ever win a state tournament title as a player and head coach was LeValley Pattison for El Camino College. She was MVP of the 1983 tourney and later coached the Warriors to back-to-back state crowns in 2007-2008.

The final four head coaches of Stall-Vest, Feather River's Sarah Ritchie, Callahan and Unke marked the second straight year in which the final four were all directed by women coaches. In 2022, Ritchie, Delta's Molly Hummel, American River's Carson Lowden and San Mateo's Katie Hahn were the rare all-female coach grouping. 

SOUTH SLUMP ENDS

Not only did Mesa become the first SoCal Region school to win the state title since Irvine Valley in 2017, the South had three teams--Mesa, Grossmont and Irvine Valley--reach the semifinals for the first time since 2016 when Grossmont, Pierce, and El Camino were joined by the North's Fresno, which won the title played at Pierce College.

That year was the first time the state tourney became an 8-team, single-elimination event. 

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

Mt. San Antonio was the first South Coast Conference school to host a state tourney since Pasadena City was the location of the the 2008 championship.

Mt. SAC becomes the 29th different community college state tourney host (some tourneys were hosted at several 4-year university venues and also Selland Arena in Fresno in 2005) joining Fresno, Southwestern, Solano, Pierce, Canyons, Cabrillo, Foothill, Fullerton, Shasta, Chaffey, Delta, Irvine Valley, Cerritos, Cypress, West Valley, De Anza, Mesa, American River, Sacramento City, Cuesta, Allan Hancock, Citrus, San Jose CC, Sequoias, El Camino, Butte, Santa Ana and Saddleback. 

Stockton's Delta has hosted the state tourney the most times at five--1996, 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2009. Delta has secured hosting the 2025 tournament after Walnut's Mt. SAC once again is the spot for next year's event. 

Of the 47 large school state champions, the South holds a decided 40-7 edge, but the North has won all seven since 2013 or seven of the last 10 crowns.

Only 15 colleges can boast winning a state title with Golden West's 17 championships leading the bunch. Mesa is the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference's second champion, the other Grossmont in 1987 and 1989.

Release by Robert Lewis, CCCWVCA SID