There is no substitute for experience and the Taft High girls’ volleyball team has that in spades.
As the regular season winds down the Toreadors are closing in on the West Valley League title and potentially the No. 1 seed in the eight-team City Section Open Division playoffs, which begin Oct. 30.
Coach Arman Mercado attributes much of this season’s success to the leadership and dedication of his “Core Four,” setter Francine Baltazar-Shine, libero Gianella Tijamo and outside hitters Aleiah Carr and Eva Velarde, who are the key players on a roster that includes 11 seniors and six juniors. Baltazar-Shine’s understudy, sophomore setter Alexa Barajas, is the lone underclassman.
“They came during the pandemic year [2021] and I remember sitting them down as freshmen and telling them how special they could be,” Mercado said. “Those four girls are volleyball nerds. They don’t miss practice, they’re leaders and they built the team around them and everyone’s buying in.”
Providing a presence at the net are Ugandan twins Claudia Aber and Colette Ejang, 6-foot-2 middle blockers and two-year starters.
“We have a bend-but-don’t-break mentality,” added Mercado, who has piloted the girls to five City titles since he took over in 2000. “Our mental stamina is as good as any team we’ve had. The longer a match goes the better these girls are at figuring things out.”
Taft has won all eight of its league matches, dropping only two sets in the process, and could pull off a rare “Perfect 10” with victories against fifth-place Chatsworth and second-place Granada Hills this week. The Toreadors finished 9-1 en route to winning league last year and were third the previous three seasons.
“We’re taking it one match a time because in this league you can lose to anyone on a given day,” said Mercado, whose team was the last to go undefeated in the West Valley, finishing 10-0 in 2019. “In one respect it’s harder to win this league than City because you have to win eight or nine matches to do it whereas in City you only have to win three in a row. I don’t care about seeding. There’s no easy way to the finals.”
Since the Open Division debuted in 2016, a West Valley team has won it on four occasions — three times by Granada Hills and last year by El Camino Real, which beat Taft in four sets in the final at Cal State Northridge. The Toreadors lost the 2018 final to Palisades in four sets and lost the 2022 final to Granada Hills in four sets.
“Eva, Gigi, Aleiah and I have been together all four years, we always hang out in the varsity room, just eating and talking,” said Baltazar-Shine, who would cherish nothing more than leading the Toreadors to their first Open Division title and first section championship since back-to-back Division II crowns in 2013 and 2014.
“We’ve been to two finals and now we have one last chance to win it,” she said. “Playing a team from your league in the finals is hard because you know each other so well. Last year it came down to who wanted it more. That was their best match ever so credit to them.”
Taft totaled 41 wins last fall, paced by City co-player of the year Claire Mussell, a dominating middle blocker who graduated in the spring. Carr and Baltazar-Shine were on the All-City first team and Tijamo was a second-team selection.
Also making a strong push for the top seed is Venice, which is poised to claim its first outright Western League title since 2010 after rallying from down two sets to one to beat archrival Palisades in five sets on Oct. 2. The Gondoliers swept Palisades on its home court in the first league encounter and will wrap up league play undefeated if they take care of business against LACES and Hamilton this week.
Venice, which fell in five sets to Taft in the Open semifinals last fall, was regarded as the preseason favorite and also features a senior-heavy group highlighted by All-City first-teamer Samantha Lortie and second-teamers Amiekal Looney and Gaia Adeseun-Williams, along with senior libero/defensive specialist and captain Pauline Lao.
Not to be overlooked is 30-time City champion Palisades, which ousted Venice 25-20, 25-17 at the Crescenta Valley tournament in September and owns victories over Eagle Rock (twice) and Chatsworth, which are vying for berths in the Open Division along with Northern League front-runner Marshall as well as El Camino Real, Granada Hills and Cleveland of the West Valley. Grant is undefeated in East Valley League play while San Pedro and Narbonne are tied atop the Marine League.
Taft has not lost to a City opponent but has not faced Venice or Palisades.
