Mission Bay High School women’s volleyball has a memorable season

With a 20-16 record as it headed into the Division II CIF playoff game against Granite Hills on Oct. 28, Mission Bay High’s women’s volleyball team was “playing well and feeling confident,” according to its coach.

“We have a lot of depth on our team in every position and have received valuable contributions from all 14 players on our roster,” said Coach Barbara Birnbaum. “Really feeling good about our team and our playing heading into playoffs.”

While the game did not end the way the Buccaneers had hoped, the final score was 2-3 in favor of the Granite Hills Eagles and their season ended 20-17, Birnbaum said she had a talented “front five” leading the team.

They were seniors Gia Harder, Ava Mirabelli, Brynn Sloan and Kalea Anderson and junior Audie Caban.

“Each of these five have made outstanding contributions to our 2025 winning season,” Birnbaum said. “They have amassed impressive stats.”

For example, during the week of Oct. 13 Harder achieved 1,000 assists, a rare and impressive accomplishment for setters.

“In volleyball an assist is when a player sets the ball up for another player to slam the ball back against the opposing team with such force that it can not be returned,” Birnbaum said.

When this happened, Mission Bay earned a point and Harder was credited with an assist.

Harder, the varsity team’s co-captain, was in the top-25 in CIF San Diego Section for assists. Harder said she enjoys playing indoor and outdoor volleyball at Mission Bay as well as playing club volleyball in the off season. With a full International Baccalaureate course load, Harder said she would like to attend the University of Oregon and perhaps major in business.

Anderson was one of the two primary setters on the varsity team and was ranked in the top 45 in CIF San Diego for assists. She has played on varsity for three years and committed to Occidental College to play volleyball next fall.

Sloan was a defensive specialist during her second year on varsity. She was frequently assigned as the team libero and was the team leader in digs. A libero is a specialized defensive position focused on receiving serves and digging attacks. In volleyball a dig is a maneuver to prevent a hard hit ball from the opposing team to score a point. A successful dig sets up the team for a successful offensive attack.

Sloan led the team with 290 digs heading into the playoffs.

“I want to attend University of Oregon or University of Washington, somewhere rainy, to study sports business with a minor in sports media/photography,” Sloan said.

Mirabelli, an IB diploma candidate, started playing volleyball the summer before her freshman year, playing indoors and outdoors, the latter being beach volleyball, as well as club volleyball. This was her second year on varsity and she went into playoffs with 172 kills.

A kill is a statistic that describes a maneuver in volleyball that results in the ball hit over the net with such force or with such accuracy that it can’t be returned by the opposing team.

With Caban being a junior and co-captain of the varsity team, she has one more year of playing as a Buccaneer. She started playing volleyball at the end of eighth grade.

“I chose Mission Bay as a high school because of its strong IB program and of the close bond I was forming with the girls on the volleyball team,” Caban said.

From December to July she also plays club volleyball and does strength training and lifting to continue to improve her volleyball performance.

“Audie is the blocks leader (116 blocks), that’s number 1 in all of CIF San Diego Section,” Birnbaum said. “She is also our team and league kills leader (388 kills) – she’s in top four for all of San Diego Section CIF for total kills.”

Caban added, “I love volleyball because it’s truly a team sport and everyone has to work together to win. It’s also so exciting to get a really good kill or block and I love the energy that my team has.”