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By Loren Kopff
Sports Editor | Follow X
September 9, 2026
One would think that there couldn’t be too many differences between the previous girls volleyball teams that Cerritos High has had over the past seven seasons and the one that longtime head coach David Cuthbert has for this season. Yes, the Dons may have won six league titles in the last seven seasons and won at least 24 matches four times during that time and advancing to the second round of the CIF-Southern Section playoffs three times.
But the one difference that has been apparent though the first part of this season is that the 18-member varsity team is healthy, unlike previous seasons and because of that, Cuthbert is watching his squad begin the season with one of the program’s best starts to the season following a 25-9, 25-17, 25-16 win over Pacifica High last Thursday. Cerritos would go 5-1 the next two days during the Whittier High Girls Volleyball Cardinal Classic with three more sweeps, bringing the season total to eight through the first 12 matches.
“Yeah, we’re healthy and we’re deep; this is the deepest team I think I’ve ever had,” said Cuthbert. “One through 18, I’ve got kids who can jump in and play, and it makes it kind of hard on me because today, we switched our lineup up compared to how we played the last few days and we had three kids stepping in to starting roles today who played really, really well.”
The Dons wasted little time getting the momentum they needed as they bolted out to a 6-1 lead in the first set on four kills from three different players, an ace from junior middle blocker Miranda Martinez and a block from senior outside hitter Avery Updike. Following three straight points from the Mariners and four of the set’s next five points, Updike and her teammates put the set away as a kill from senior middle blocker Kaylin Cho, who was not a starter, was followed by nine consecutive points.
Updike had two straight aces and four under her watch while senior outside hitter Ceana Merino had three kills while sophomore middle blocker Peyton Hoyer, who was a late addition at the beginning of the season, put down her first kill.
“It was so fun watching the bench be so happy for [Hoyer] because she stepped in and in her first three rotations, she had a block, block, overpass kill,” said Cuthbert. “Then she stepped in and set a ball. I was really excited to watch her play today. She made lots of great plays.”
Pacifica wouldn’t score consecutive points the remainder of the set, but Merino added consecutive aces to make the score 24-8 and ended the set with her fifth kill. Cerritos collected 16 kills from eight players in the set and put down seven aces.
Cerritos came out a little sluggish in the first half of the second set, falling behind 8-5 and 12-9 after leading 3-1. But Cho had her fifth kill of the match to end the first rotation, then junior setter Kylie Cruz had an ace followed by kills from Martinez and Merino as the Dons bounced back and never trailed the remainder of the match.
“They have some talented players,” Cuthbert said of Pacifica. “In the first set, we served really well. The easiest way to score points is to serve well, and we work on that, but you don’t always get a set where you get a nine-point run off the service line. So, I think perhaps the second and third sets were perhaps a better representation of what’s typically going to happen.”
The third set began with four straight points, including the first two of three from junior outside hitter Ally Veron for the match. Pacifica would not score more than two straight points until it was 22-12. Junior setter and opposite hitter Leah Hidalgo, who got into the offensive action with four kills in the second set, added three more in the third set. When the match had ended, 10 players had at least one kill as Cho led the Dons with nine, followed by seven each from Hidalgo and Merino, six from Hoyer and five from Martinez. Updike had six aces, and Merino added another four as seven different players had at least one of the 19 aces the team collected.
“It’s the way that we have to play,” said Cuthbert. “We’re at our best when we’re getting kills from all parts of the court. If we rely on one player, then we’re going to struggle a little bit. So, that’s always been the plan. But today, we did a really nice job of finding offense from everywhere. I want a little bit more offense out of my setter going over on two. But that will come.”
After dominating the 605 League since its inception, the Dons are now part of the much power Gateway League where they will face tougher competition with the likes of Downey High, Gahr High, La Serna High and Warren High. Cerritos hosted Gahr on Sept. 10 and will participate in the Bellflower Tournament on Friday and Saturday before welcoming Warren on Thursday. The Dons have won five straight matches against Gahr and nine of the past 10 against the Gladiators since 2017.
The fact that Cuthbert has enough players on varsity to run three different teams gives the Dons a good of a chance of winning the inaugural season of the new Gateway League.
“Depth is great, but you can only play six players at once,” said Cuthbert. “I think if volleyball was a 12 a side game, we would be really good this year. But what’s really great about our depth this year is our practices are competitive. We play really good games in practices because we have so much depth, which has been really good for us this year.”
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