El Capitan’s volleyball CCC dynasty shows no signs of slowing

With the El Capitan High girls volleyball team only having one senior on the roster this season there was an opportunity for young players to fill vital roles this season. With a team that featured two sophomores and two freshmen the Gauchos didn’t skip a beat.

 

El Capitan swept Merced 25–20, 25-13, 25-17 on Wednesday night to finish off a third consecutive 10-0 run through the Central California Conference. The Gauchos only lost one set along the way as they extended their CCC winning streak to 34 consecutive games. It was a night to celebrate as El Capitan won a sixth consecutive CCC championship.

 

“Winning six consecutive CCC championships is incredibly special, and it's something I don't think any of us take for granted,” said El Capitan coach Chela Moreno, whose team improved to 27-7 overall. “Six straight championships don't just happen. It takes a tremendous amount of hard work, commitment, and buy-in from every group of athletes that comes through this program. We've worked extremely hard over the years to establish a standard, and every season our goal is to protect that standard and continue building on what the teams before us have accomplished.”

 

The Gauchos were able to fend off the Bears for their second victory over their crosstown rival this season. Merced finished tied with Golden Valley at 7-3 in the CCC. Annabella Solis led the way for El Capitan with 13 kills and eight digs. Anushka Elwin added seven kills, four aces, 21 assists and 10 digs and Ellie Iniguez chipped in with five aces, nine kills and eight digs.

 

“I'm just super excited,” Elwin said. “I'm happy that we were able to do it for another year with just keeping the consistency and the growth of our program, just staying strong. No matter if we had a new team or an old team or just anybody on the team, we know the standard and we know what we had to do, and I'm glad that we got to do it.”

 

Iniguez says there is a certain amount of pressure when you join the Gauchos volleyball program to maintain a high standard of play. “As long as we're all playing our game it’s going to be fine,” she said. “We can’t play to the level of our opponents.”

 

Moreno said this team surprised her with so many young players in key roles. “What makes this championship even more special is the group of girls who accomplished it,” she said. “Coming into this season, we knew we were going to be extremely young, especially after losing so many seniors from last year's team. We honestly anticipated this being more of a rebuilding year, with a lot of learning and growing along the way. But these girls had other plans.”

 

“I've honestly had an absolute blast coaching this group,” Moreno added. “There's something really special about coaching a young team that is so hungry to learn and eager to improve. They come into the gym wanting to get better, they're receptive to coaching, and they're willing to put in the work. Of course, with a young team comes a lot of teaching, growing pains, and learning experiences, but that's also what has made this season so rewarding.”

 

Next up for the Gauchos will be the playoffs next week. El Capitan is currently ranked No. 6 in Division II by MaxPreps. El Capitan should earn a first-round home match on Tuesday.

 

“I think the end goal is always the playoffs,” Elwin said. “ We need to stay consistent throughout. Whether that’s our service game or hitting. All of our stats we need to stay super consistent, we need to spread out our offense and just stay balanced. That way we’ll be ready for the bigger teams in Sacramento.”

Shawn Jansen is the MUHSD Program Manager Digital Media. He can be reached at Sjansen@muhsd.org