The Acalanes Invitational kicked off at 0-dark-30 Saturday morning, an hour generally reserved for airport departures, fishing trips and poor life choices. 

The Dons’ first matchup was St. Mary’s, and unfortunately, Acalanes appeared to still be negotiating with its collective alarm clock. The Panthers, out of Albany, were more awake and handed the Dons a quick two-set loss in the 8 a.m. contest.

But eventually the caffeine kicked in. Against Miramonte, the Dons showed signs of life. They won their first set of the season, briefly looked around and thought, “Hey, this feels pretty good,” and then decided to do it again. A straight-set win over the Matadors gave Acalanes its first victory of the year and, more importantly, something it hadn’t had much of through the first few matches: momentum.

Which they promptly carried into a matchup with powerhouse Carondelet,  which, as many people don’t know, is French for “hamburger.” Carondelet is one of those teams that likes to establish the terms of the conversation early. They hit hard, play fast and generally prefer that the team on the other side of the net remain quiet and roll over. 

For a while, the Dons cooperated. Down 17-21 in the first set, however, senior Meher Jeyakrishnan got a kill, followed by a block from the Sydney Scovic/Quinn Frontiera wall, pulling them within two late. Acalanes ultimately dropped the set 22-25. But something important had happened along the way: They had stopped asking permission to be in the match.

The Dons carried that into the second set. Tied at 9, senior sensation and UC Merced commit Ella Chong stepped to the service line and promptly served four straight points, aided by strong middle play from Devyn “Dropkick” Murphy. That little bit of separation was all Acalanes needed. The Dons held the cushion the rest of the way and took the set 25-20, the first set Carondelet had dropped all day.

Apparently the Dons did, in fact, have a voice, and this was inconvenient for Carondelet. The Cougars jumped out early in the deciding third set, and although Acalanes made a furious late push,  including another Meher ace and Scovic block, the hole proved too deep. The Dons fell 11-15.

But winning that second set put Acalanes into the Gold Bracket for the medal round. More importantly, it showed them something they probably needed to see for themselves: the big teams weren’t invincible. Acalanes didn’t have to retreat just because a historical bully on the other side of the net wanted to dictate the match. Turns out, nobody can really take away your voice. In order for that to happen, you have to give it to them.

Northgate was waiting in the medal round, and the Broncos quickly learned that the now-fully-caffeinated Dons were a somewhat different team than the one St. Mary’s had encountered that morning. Senior Sahar Noroozi opened with a strong serving run to help stake Acalanes to a 9-4 lead, and seniors Amelia, Meher and Sydney helped systematically dismantle Northgate from there. The Dons took the first set 25-11.

The Dons dropped a close second set, and in the 3rd, Northgate jumped ahead 3-0 before junior oppo Quinn Frontiera stopped the Broncos’ momentum with a timely kill. Meher followed with another serving run, Ella Chong added several decisive kills, and Tulane Beach VB commit Scovic resumed her crafty play at the net as only a beach VB player can, and suddenly the match had flipped. Acalanes closed it out emphatically, 15-8.

Which set up a rematch with Carondelet. By this point, the girls had been playing volleyball for approximately 14 consecutive hours, while the parents had been watching for 19. It’s difficult to explain unless you’ve taken advanced physics. Something involving the space-time continuum. Tournament volleyball exists outside the normal laws governing time, hunger and lower-back pain.

Anyway. Once again, Carondelet tried to quiet the Dons. Once again, Acalanes declined. The Cougars took the first set, but the Dons came right back and took Set 2, meaning that in two matches Saturday, Acalanes had taken two sets off a Carondelet team that had spent most of the day steamrolling everyone else.

Exhausted, the Dons battled through the deciding third set before ultimately falling. So no, they didn’t leave Saturday with a tournament championship. But they left looking considerably different from the team that began the preseason.

They won their first match. They advanced into the Gold Bracket. They beat Northgate. They twice took sets from one of the strongest teams in the tournament. And, most importantly, they started to understand that they belonged in those matches.

Carondelet may have tried to silence them. But the Dons are beginning to figure out that’s not really Carondelet’s decision.