Albany’s tremendous offensive attack, led by senior midfielder Maddie Kirkby, will play a final rivalry match tonight against longtime foe Piedmont. It is likely the last regular season meeting for the two schools, as Albany will be joining a new athletic league next fall, which does not include Piedmont.  A win or tie will give the Cougars the league title; a loss will give it to Piedmont. The two teams tied 2-2 in their last meeting.

This match comes before Monday’s NCS seeding announcements, which will include both Albany and Piedmont.

Tonight’s game is at 7 at Piedmont High School.

This win launched the team into the BSAL league playoffs, where they will play either Saint Patrick St. Vincent’s or St. Joseph’s. Their current league standings are 5-7 while their overall standings are 13-11.

“Regardless of the outcome, I am really happy with how we have done during the season. I’ll love the team no matter what!” said Timken.

With a current league record of 10-0-3, the Lady Cougars are competing with Piedmont for the league championship.

In December, the Cougars defeated St. Mary’s 3-0 and won all of their games in the Tri Valley Tournament.

A series of ties – Encinal 1-1, Salesian 1-1, Piedmont 2-2 – was followed by two impressive wins over St. Joseph Notre Dame 4-1 and St. Patrick’s 4-0.

Last Friday night the Cougars lost 0-3 to the non-league Monte Vista in a difficult second half. But the first and only loss won’t get the Cougars down; conversely it intensifies the competition for a top seed in NCS.

Come support the Cougars as they wrap up the season! Womens Varsity plays St. Mary’s at home this Tuesday, January 31, at 6:00 pm.

With the win, the Cougars are just several wins away from repeating as BSAL champions.

The Cougars were paced by two penalty goals by senior Gabriel Borges and a breakaway blast by senior Andre Alvarez.

Up next for AHS is Kennedy High, Wednesday February 1, 5:30 p.m. at Cougar Field.

More details to follow.

With the previous coach Kitamba “Ko” Douglas retiring, Benjy Toczynski moved up from JV to take over the varsity squad.  The 2012 team, returning many players from the undefeated 2011 BSAL champions, started off this season with a disappointing record of 2 wins, 3 losses, and 4 ties.

Coach-player problems surfaced including the suspensions of starting players for key games that are seen to have contributed to the frustrating defeats. These problems escalated to the point where seniors Kian Ahmadi, Andre Alvarez, and Gabriel Borges were dismissed from the team.

Seniors Guicho Alonso and Romario Pena and juniors Felix Gonzalez and Kusha Miraftab chose to leave the team following their teammates’ dismissals.

Concerned players and parents approached coach Toczynski, athletic director Andrew Strawbridge and principal Ted Barone seeking a solution.  After several meetings the decision was made just prior to winter break to have coach Ko Douglas return for the balance of the season, replacing Toczynski.

All players who were dismissed or quit have returned to the varsity squad.

Since the coaching change, the results have been positive, with a 3-0-1 record under Douglas’s direction.

“Practices have become more productive, and we are playing harder as a team while still having fun,” said senior Kian Ahmadi.

On last Thursday evening, the Cougars took advantage of an undermanned Encinal team, winning 6-0.   Gabriel Borges and Felix Gonzalez each scored twice; Kusha Miraftab added a score on a header and junior Asitha Kaduwela scored once.

The Cougars next home game is against St. Patrick St. Vincent on Wednesday January 25.

But rather than focusing only on a two-point loss that would’ve given Albany its first-ever state athletic title, let’s celebrate what can only be described as “one hell of a season.” Hollywood would have a hard time recreating the drama that the Cougars provided for the Albany fans and community.

Make no mistake about this miracle season. What the Cougars achieved was not through an act of divine intervention, but rather a culmination of hard work, dedication, and grit when they had their backs regularly pinned against the wall.

Date back to October 15. In the final match of a daylong tournament, the Cougars lost in straight sets to rival Salesian High School, showing what some said was little effort.

“I saw the team coasting through the schedule and not living up to their potential,” said second-year coach Roger Worsley. “Seeing them under perform, I needed to push some buttons. I gave them a challenge and they responded.”

Worseley called for 5:00 a.m. practices the Monday following the loss. Added to this dilemma, the team’s roster was down five members, due to injuries and other off-field issues.

“It was a struggling time, but from it we learned how to be a team,” senior captain and setter McKenzie Giblin said. “We got ourselves straightened out.”

The practices paid off. Reestablishing their hard-hitting mentality and orchestrating better ball movement, the Cougars went undefeated the rest of the regular season.They finished with a 13-0 record, and did not have to play more than three sets until the BSAL Championship in a rematch against Salesian. It was evident that the Cougars never took their foot off the gas pedal.

“It really showed that hard work pays off,” junior hitter Kyra Holt added. “We were more mature, held our composure, and we stayed together as a team.”

But teamwork can only carry the group so far. The Cougars also had phenomenal athletes, led by BSAL Most Valuable Player Kyra Holt, who was also named to the State All-Tournament Team and was the Cal-Hi Sports Bay Area NCS Player of the Year. Other top performers included senior middle hitters Maddy Dunn and Kariana Castanon-Hill, sophomore middle hitter Amber Erhahon, and junior outside hitter Marin Gibson. A side note about these big guns—they are all six-feet or taller.

“Kyra is the hammer on the court,” Erhahon said. “She’s the definition of power, and she’s a leader on the court—a home base for us to regroup during a match.”

This group of sheer power would not have reached its full potential without Giblin, however. The captain has been the starting varsity setter all four years of her high school career. Worsley commented, “Watching McKenzie progress over the last two years, she’s come a long way. Before she seemed to press a lot, but now she’s much more understanding of the ebb and flow of the game.”

He added: “She also has a better mental approach and comprehension of the setter position.”

Another impact player bringing the talent together is sophomore Brooke Tannahill, who took the reigns of libero in only her second year of varsity play.

“For someone playing the position for the first time, she’s great,” Giblin said of Tannahill, “and she’s always looking to get better. You don’t see that maturity and fire in an underclassman.”

It was with this group of starters that the Cougars earned the number three seed for North Coast Section playoffs. First ousting six-seed Analy, Albany went into a hostile environment to upset the two-seed Campolindo High School—the favorite to win NCS. It was also here that the Cougars started playing the role of the comeback kids.

“It was a rivalry game we had to win,” Dunn said of the Campolindo victory. “When we were down after the first set, Coach Worsley said he wasn’t ready to stop being our coach this season, and that really set us off. We were on fire from that point and redeemed ourselves.”

After an upset of the one-seed Miramonte on the other side of the bracket by Sir Francis Drake High School, the Cougars had an opportunity to win NCS on their home court against the Drake Pirates. Winning the first two sets easily but faltering in game three, the Cougars showed enough poise to pull it out, 25-19, 25-19, 22-25, 25-23.

“Watching Drake in the past, we knew exactly what they were going to do,” Erhahon spoke of winning NCS. “It was a great game plan and we stuck it to them.”

With the win, the Cougars clinched the number three seed in the NorCal State Volleyball Tournament.

In the first round, Albany routed Christian Brothers High School at home, 25-16, 25-18, 25-23.

The second round game forced the Cougars to drive to Folsom to play Vista del Lago High School. Again they found themselves backed into a corner.

“They thought they had it in the bag when they won that third game,” assistant coach Lynn Hall said. “We just said ‘hell no’ and came back. Once we tied it up, the whole gym went quiet and we knew it was ours to take.”

The Cougars beat Vista del Lago 12-25, 25-19, 14-25, 25-23, 15-10.

To advance to the State Finals, the Cougars needed to win the NorCal final against heavily favored Sacred Heart Cathedral of San Francisco. Albany took the first two games, but let the Fighting Irish come back to tie it up. Albany won the decisive fifth set to earn the trip to Irvine, 27-25, 25-19, 16-25, 23-25, 15-11.

On the win, Hall said, “People thought that once they were back in it, we had no chance. But like a cat with nine lives, we hung around, out-executed, and won.” Hall added: “Not being a big school is a big advantage, since most teams have never heard of us and don’t have tapes on us.”

It was going to be Albany’s first appearance in a state title match for volleyball in the school’s history. Sacrificing valuable class time, the school held a pep rally on December 1^st, two days before the match, to send the team off in high spirits.

“We wanted to make sure the team would carry a piece of the school, the students and the community,” said Albany High Principal Ted Barone. “It was nice to see everyone be involved for such a special occasion.”

The Cougars then made the trip down to Concordia University in Irvine with one goal in mind: take home a state title. To do this, they would have to defeat powerhouse Cathedral Catholic High School, the SoCal representatives who had won every set so far in playoffs. The stage was set for a David vs. Goliath match up, as Cathedral Catholic had won the state title in 2008, 2009, and was the runner-up last year.

“It was going to be a matter of game plan and execution,” Hall said.

And execute they did. After getting blown out in the first set, 25-15, the Cougars responded by taking the next two sets, 25-23 and 25-21. The Cougars overcame deficits of as much as seven points to steal the match’s momentum.

“We weren’t ready to go down, and we gave them all we got,” Dunn said.

A late charge by the Dons and some sloppy play from the Cougars took the title right out of their reach, as they faltered 31-29 and 16-14 to finish just shy of the ultimate prize.

“We couldn’t have been better prepared. We just got out performed,” Hall said of the defeat. “It was a learning loss though, and we went out playing the Albany style of play that got us here.”

Though the season ended with a loss, it was the first match Cathedral Catholic played where they were challenged until the last point. There is also a beneficial factor of the loss that will help the team in the future.

“How far we got was nothing short of what I expected,” Worsley concluded. “It was a season of discovery. The girls saw what they had to do to fight within themselves to come out on top. They now understand what to expect of themselves.”

Led by senior Isaiah Smith, who scored 26 points, the team beat Terra Linda in the consolation with relative ease, winning by a final score of 67-52. Smith’s performance earned him all-tournament honors, and senior Alvarho Guzman was named to the all-tournament team as well.

Guzman poured in 13 and senior Garrett Freeberg added 12 in the victory.

The team, meanwhile, improved to 4-3 on the season. They’ll head to Hercules on Tuesday, as they get set to take on the Titans.

Despite high pressure, the Cougars weren’t able to get any real shots off. St. Mary’s had one shot that went wide, keeping the game scoreless.

Albany dominated the second half with a relentless offense and solid defense.

During a chaotic play in St. Mary’s box, freshman Ya Davis, managed to touch the ball in for the first goal.

Junior Clara McCleod received a pass at the 30-yard line and blasted a beautiful shot past the outstretched arms of the keeper and into the upper right corner, putting the Cougars up 2-0.

Moments later senior Marielle Pastor took a hard shot at goal, but St. Mary’s keeper blocked it. From the midfield, senior Maddie Kirkby took a free kick that narrowly missed the goal.

Sophomore Mallory Wolfe scored the third goal off of a cross from Ya Davis.

Despite a 3-0 lead, the Cougars didn’t stop attacking. Ya Davis floated a ball that nearly scored, and Maddie Kirkby had another close free kick.

Throughout the game, seniors Lilia Taboada, Pia Mingkwan, Simone Hickman, and sophomore  Jo Kirkby held down the defense to maintain the 3-0 shutout.

Upcoming games: The Cougars play at home Wednesday vs. Encinal and away Friday vs. Pinole Valley.