Posted by Press Democrat Staff Writer Michael Coit:
A pair of former Sonoma County prep volleyball stars ended their college careers in the NCAA Division I tournament.
Mindi Wiley finished her run at Cal with the Bears’ loss to top seeded Penn State on Saturday. Cal, ranked tenth nationally, won three matches to reach the final eight, but it is the defending national champion Nittany Lions going to the women’s final four.
Former Empire Volleyball Club teammate and fellow Pac-10 star Kaitlin Sather played her last college match in the UCLA second round loss to Baylor last week. The Bruins were ranked ninth nationally.
Both players left marks on their school’s record books.
Wiley this year topped the Bears in blocks with 1.03 per set, and was most accurate on the team in kills while recording 2.37 per set, third best for the Bears.
Sather was second on the Bruins with both 2.86 kills per set and 3.05 digs per set. She led the Bruins in double-doubles with 17 and became just the 12th UCLA women’s volleyball player ever to total more than 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs for a career.
The American Volleyball Coaches Association recognized Sather’s accomplishments with an honorable mention on the AVCA Pacific Region team.
Sather is an outside hitter from Maria Carrillo High School. Wiley is a middle blocker from Sonoma Valley High School.
For three years leading to college, Sather and Wiley played together on Empire Volleyball club teams.
