SAN JOSE — Archbishop Mitty was the first school to win the CIF NorCal Division I championship, doing so when the regional tournament was inaugurated in 2013.
Twelve years later, the Monarchs are now also the first-ever NorCal team to reach the state championship after beating Clovis East 3-1 for the D-I crown at home in San Jose.
Mitty knew it had a special group when the season began, and the CIF state title match, introduced for the first time in 2025, was the north star of a campaign with so much promise.
The Monarchs never got derailed, finishing the job with an eye-popping record of 40-2. And now, they’ll have the chance to do something no California boys high school volleyball team has ever done before.
“It was exhilarating,” said Mitty assistant coach Gregg Gallegos, who took the reins in March when head coach Lacey Gera temporarily stepped down to go on maternity leave.
Somewhat surprising – although perhaps not, if you’ve been paying close attention – it took Mitty quite a bit of time and some serious jeopardy to get going on Saturday. Clovis East, despite enduring a brutal travel schedule that included an eight-hour-plus bus ride back to Clovis on Friday night, came out with a surge in the early going, taking an 11-5 lead.
Mitty closed the gap and took a 15-14 lead but lost the set 25-22.
It got worse in the second set. Clovis East, perhaps rejuvenated by a 3-0 run to end the first set, took a 6-0 lead to begin the second frame.
At that point, the Monarchs were running out of time to turn it on.
“I can’t say it verbatim,” Gallegos said of his speech after calling a timeout at the pivotal moment. “It was just a mindset thing, and it’s just reminding them that you are better than them, you are better than the person across from you. And like, you need to start believing that.”
Mitty flipped the switch immediately thereafter, and once they did, it stuck. The Monarchs tied the set at 9-9 and won going away, 25-17.
Around the same time, star hitter William Dryden, always an excellent player, raised his level a few notches and became simply unstoppable. With Dryden leading the way, Mitty surged to the finish line, winning the final two sets 25-17 and 25-18.
Gallegos had awoken the sleeping giant. There was nothing Clovis East could do.
“We definitely got some more energy,” Dryden said. “We realized that what we needed to do was improve defensively. Once we were able to do that, we were able to get the ball to more people, spread out the offense, and I knew it was time to take over. That’s what we needed in this game.”
The Monarchs’ new standard was stellar enough that Clovis East was essentially disenfranchised. No matter what they did, as long as Mitty remained focused, they were not going to win another set.
“Mitty is a great team. They’re very competitive,” Timberwolves coach Niko Orro said. “Coming into the match, I was optimistic but also unsure about what the outcome would be. We were having these ups and downs in our game. Mitty played a great game, and we hung in there with them for a little bit. But they’re a tough team. They’re very physical and hard to beat.”
The win was bittersweet validation for Gera, who had to watch from the bleachers as the team she built romped through the NorCal playoffs. Mitty dropped just one set in the Division I tournament, punctuating a postseason run that also included the Monarchs’ first CCS championship in a dozen years.
“I knew going into this season, even though I was pregnant, this team was going to be really special and this season was going to be pretty spectacular,” Gera said. “Which it has been. Winning WCAL, winning CCS, winning every tournament that we’ve been in and now winning NorCal. I’m really proud and honored to be able to have established this program but also have the support of my staff.
“It’s emotional to be able to have someone step in like Greg, who is devoted, passionate, a great coach, a great person, to be here and take over. I have that trust in the staff, that they’re gonna do a really good job, which obviously they have. I’m just really happy. Even though I’m just a cheerleader now, I’m the biggest fan by far.”
Gera plans to make the trip to Fresno for the state title game, which will be Dryden’s final match with the Monarchs. His volleyball career isn’t over – he’ll head to UC Santa Barbara to join the Gauchos in time for the next school year.
But it will be his last time in Mitty black and gold, and he plans to make it count.
“It’s very special,” Dryden said. “Especially the fact that it’s my senior year. I’ve been on this team for three years, building, getting better every year. Now that it’s my senior year, we finally get the chance to do that. Even though there’s a lot of people saying we can’t beat a SoCal team, there’s no reason that we can’t. If we play the way we played today, we improve on our defense and let them make the errors, we should be able to beat any team.”
Dryden finished the match with 28 kills and a hitting efficiency mark of .568. He added three service aces for good measure.
Mitty will face Southern California’s top seed and the No. 1 team in the nation, Mira Costa of Huntington Beach, in the state championship match at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday at Fresno City College.
