For Top-Ranked Poway, Pieces Have Fit Perfectly

POWAY —  Much the same way a blue-ribbon winning pie at a country fair relies on its secret ingredients for success, so does the Poway girls’ volleyball team.

It’s just the right blend, a hint of this and a dash of that, that sets the entry apart. The perfect concoction is so special it may never be duplicated.

Lisa Sarver-Reis, in her eighth season as Poway’s coach, has such a team. Wednesday, the unbeaten Titans defeated Granite Hills, 15-6, 15-9, 15-13, to move into Saturday’s San Diego Section Division III final against Torrey Pines.

“I don’t know what it is, and I don’t know if we’ll ever have it again,” Sarver-Reis said after a recent workout. “It’s like magic. There’s a chemistry on the team that we’ve never had. It’s just unreal.”

Sarver-Reis inherited a team that had a 2-16 record in 1980. By 1981, she managed to take the program to a .500 team and into Palomar League champions by the ’82 season. In her tenure, Poway teams are 159-22 and have won five league titles (two as co-champions) and three consecutive CIF championships (1984-86).

The distinction this team has over other winning Poway teams is their undefeated record. They are 24-0 and were 12-0 in league play.

“Not many people can say that they went undefeated,” co-captain Shannon Griffin said. “It’s just a great way to end the (regular) season.”

Paige Smith, the other co-captain said: “It’s awesome. Girls would come up to us and ask us what our record was and when they heard the 0, they were all, ‘No way, really?’ ”

Poway’s talent has been evident from Day 1. There was no incident or episode that catapulted the No. 1-ranked team in the county into such a force.

“We knew from the first day how good they were,” Sarver-Reis said. “We just tried to keep it real low key.”

That was a challenge.

“At tournaments,” she said, “coaches would come up to us and make comments about how good we were.”

Pressed for the specifics of success, Reis said: “The chemistry is the first thing. Then it’s their dedication to the sport and then it’s their talent.”

Talent can be broken down into the following areas:

- Poway is strong and agile. The girls lift weights three times a week, and Sarver-Reis makes them stretch out before and after practice.

- Poway is quick and lean. All but one player can run a sub 7-minute mile, and the team’s average body fat is 7 to 8%, remarkably low for high school girls.

- Poway is serious. “It’s all business when they get on the court. They don’t fool around,” Sarver-Reis said.

- Poway is goal-oriented. The girls have individual and team goal charts for each game. “We chart the game before each match to see what we’d like to accomplish,” Smith said.

- Poway is a bit cocky. Teams managed to score an average of 6 points per game against Poway in league, a little more outside of league.

“A little cocky is OK,” Sarver-Reis said. “They (thought they were) going to be in the (section) finals. I don’t mind. We won’t let them jump ahead.”

What Poway doesn’t have is hard-core competition.

“I haven’t seen them pressed all season,” said Eric Reis, Sarver-Reis’ husband and assistant coach.

Added Sarver-Reis: “We need a long, tough match.”

Team members are particularly proud of their winning performance in September’s Glendale Hoover tournament.

“Usually, our one or two losses (for the season) are against L.A. teams,” Smith said. “This year, our goal was to get out of pool-play, but we just kept winning and winning.”

This marked the first time a San Diego team has won a tournament in the Los Angeles area, where volleyball is light years ahead of San Diego.

“LA is 15 years ahead of us, which makes them 15 years better than us,” Eric Reis said. “Four years ago, we made a commitment to go to Los Angeles three or four times a year to compete against the teams up there. A lot of (improvement) is just court time.”

Only two teams--league opponent Mt. Carmel and defending 2-A CIF champion University--took Poway past the minimum three games in matches this season. Against University, Poway dropped the third game, 15-13, then regrouped and won the final game easily, winning the match, 3-1. Against Mt. Carmel, Poway was without its starting setter, Amy Boyer.

The Boyer name is one that is synonymous with Poway volleyball. Older sisters Ann, a senior at UCLA, and Cheri, a freshmen at Hawaii, were star setters. And all figured prominently in the Titans’ record. With junior Amy on center court, this year is no different.

“The Boyer factor is a big factor,” Sarver-Reis said. “Setter is a very key position and Amy’s level of setting is just so great.”

Sarver-Reis can only speculate as to how they’d do without Boyer, her silent leader. “We still would be real competitive.”

Said Boyer of their success: “We’re real aggressive, and everyone’s out for the team, not just for themselves.”

Those ingredients and others might earn Poway another CIF championship--and, this year, a chance to go past the first round in the state tournament.