Elia Rubin powers Marymount volleyball to Division 1 championship win over Mater Dei

Elia Rubin put her hands to her head, then out to the heavens in a momentary gesture of shock.

A second earlier, one of her normally unstoppable spikes had been blocked resoundingly by Santa Ana Mater Dei senior Shanelle Puetz, and Rubin’s Marymount High team was faced with an outcome it experienced for just the seventh time all season — it lost a set.

All of a sudden, despite being down 2-1, the Monarchs had all the momentum in Saturday night’s CIF Southern Section Division 1 girls’ volleyball championship. And to start the fourth set, they played like it, stifling Marymount attacks with a stout block and holding an early lead.

So Rubin clapped her hands, assumed a death stare and went to work.

And clinging to a one-point lead at set point, with Mater Dei fighting for every last breath, Rubin soared for a spike that simply couldn’t be blocked, giving Marymount the 3-1 win (27-25, 25-23, 23-25, 25-23) and sealing an undefeated season.

“I saw a little miscommunication between the [Mater Dei] players, and I was like, ‘It’s down!’” Rubin said. “Oh my gosh, it was crazy.”

The Monarchs never quit, and in the fourth set, the tide looked to be pulling away from the Sailors. Marymount found itself in an uncharacteristic position — playing from behind.

Yet down 5-3, there was Rubin, soaring for two consecutive kills. Down 10-8, there was Rubin, with a perfectly placed kill to a dead zone in a Mater Dei corner.

Marymount’s Kerry Keefe tries to spike the ball past Mater Dei’s Gabriela Gubbins, left, and Isabel Clark on Saturday.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

Marymount’s Elia Rubin (right) spikes the ball against Mater Dei on Saturday.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

She was there down 11-9 and up 17-16 and at the final kill, never letting Marymount lose en route to a 3-1 victory.

“I like to try to be strong for my teammates, because when we have all those emotions, I need to try to be the center ground,” Rubin said.

As the ball hit the floor, the Sailors dogpiled on top of Rubin in pure elation, an outpouring of support for their vocal leader.

It’s an incredibly tight-knit group, coach Cari Klein said before the game. With a few on the team like Rubin coming off a title-winning season with the Klein-coached Sunshine Volleyball Club, she noticed the group entered the season already knowing how to play well together.

Trips to Las Vegas and Arizona for tournaments just served to bring players closer together, as the team held dance parties and dressed in onesies for bus rides.

Behind the jovial attitude was a killer focus.

Coming off a 33-5 season before the pandemic that ended in a disappointing playoff loss to Torrey Pines, Klein knew she and the team would have high expectations.

“We had unfinished business,” Klein said. “I had a thought that next year, we would have a pretty focused group.”

Yet even with the CIF title and a celebration erupting in her midst, Rubin had her sights set on more. “It’s not over,” she said. “We still have state.”

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Venice won the City Section Open Division girls’ volleyball championship with a 25-23, 25-15, 25-15 victory over Granada Hills at Lake Balboa Birmingham.