Golden West, Saddleback Lay a Lot on the Line

Golden West and Saddleback bring very different histories into the women’s state volleyball tournament starting Friday at Irvine Valley and Concordia University.

Golden West arrives with an impressive list of accomplishments on the state level.

The Rustlers (23-1) are the top-ranked team in California and have won the last four state titles and six of the last seven. This is the 10th consecutive time that Golden West, coached by Albert Gasparian, has reached the state tournament.

“Everyone expects us to win [every match],” Gasparian said. “and if we don’t they want to know what’s wrong.”

Saddleback also has a high ranking--second in the state--and a 20-3 record. But the postseason hasn’t been kind to the Gauchos.

Saddleback hasn’t been past the first round of the playoffs since 1989, and hasn’t been in the state tournament since 1978. The Gauchos were second in the state in 1977 but haven’t won a state title.

Saddleback took an important step toward success on the state level when they hired Kim Lester as head coach last spring. Lester had been an assistant at Southwestern for three seasons and also coaches a club team in San Diego.

She said that after a couple of practices in August, she started to see that her team had enough talent for more than the rebuilding season she expected. A core of sophomores, led by outside hitter Whitney Uhl, who was selected as the Orange Empire Conference’s most valuable player, was the reason for Lester’s optimism.

But at Saddleback, as well as Golden West, there was a great deal of work needed.

“Basically,” Lester said, “I knew we had the talent, but we’ve improved 100% since the start of the season.”

Golden West is led by sophomore outside hitter Mariah Marquis and setter Becky Sidoti, who along with freshman middle blocker Jana James made the all-conference first team.

“I knew we had good players and we worked really hard,” Gasparian said. “Our goal each year is to get better.”

Golden West opens with Foothill (15-1) at 8 p.m. Friday and Saddleback starts with Cabrillo (16-2) at 6 p.m. Both matches are at Concordia.

The teams couldn’t meet until the winners’ bracket final, at 7 p.m. Saturday at Concordia or in the final at 5 p.m. Sunday at Concordia.