Catalina-Notre Dame volleyball

Saturday's match
Central Coast Section Division V Finals
No. 2 Santa Catalina (21-3) vs. No. 1 Notre Dame (30-5) at Independence High, San Jose, 10:30 a.m.
 Why did we have to wait two weeks for what we knew was coming?
 I suppose a little extra work served as a tuneup for both the defending champion Spirits and Santa Catalina.
 Then again, complacency is always a concern when you are going through the motions to get to the finals.
 No coach will admit that.
 But both teams played a pair of postseason matches that lasted less than 75 minutes.
 Battled tested?
 Not really.
 Yet, both teams were pushed at the end of their regular seasons.
 The hope is that effort from the regular season shows up on Saturday, particularly in a rare 10:30 a.m. match, in what has traditionally been a chilly Independence gym.
 While Notre Dame beat the Cougars in three games back in September, little emphasis is put on that match for good reason.
 Santa Catalina hadn't had a full week of practice prior to that meeting.
 As Notre Dame coach Veronica Companion acknowledged, the Cougars have got chemistry now.
 Of course, so do the Spirits, who have watched Nikki DeSerpa evolve into one of the premier hitters in the section.
 DeSerpa has a supporting cast at the net, starting with Kate Lathos and Jennifer Lane. It doesn't hurt having setter Julia Scattini feeding the ball off of passes from libero Mikeila Banda.
 What's changed about Santa Catalina is its cohesiveness and emergence of freshman Maria Santos, who has power in her swings.
 Santos provides a nice compliment to sophomore McKinley Fox and Lauren Garcia, while sisters Olivia and Tatumn Satow don't let balls hit the hardwood in the back row.