SLO High’s Holland Boege, Arroyo Grande’s Ashlyn Herlihy are The Tribune’s prep volleyball players of the year

Twice a year for the past four years, San Luis Obispo High’s Holland Boege and Arroyo Grande’s Ashlyn Herlihy looked at each other through the nylon squares of a volleyball net.

It wasn’t exactly like looking into a mirror, though. The “friendly rivals” are both seniors and have similar light red hair and 6-foot-1 frames — but Boege and Herlihy had distinctly different playing styles as the big hitters for their teams that shared a PAC 8 title in the fall.

Boege is described by coaches and players in the county as consistently good. She’s the type of player who isn’t flashy and doesn’t jump out of the gym, but she always jumps out on the stat sheet. Boege led the Tigers in kills (339), aces (31) and digs (299). Outside of stats, Boege commanded the respect of her teammates.

“One hundred percent, the girls looked to her,” San Luis Obispo coach Marci Beddall said. “When I walked in, and I would say something, they would look to Holland.”

Herlihy, who was named Tribune County Co-Player of the Year as a junior with teammate Emily Sonny, made her mark with a bionic right arm and unparalleled athleticism.

“I’m glad I didn’t have to coach against her,” Arroyo Grande coach Ernie Santa Cruz said. “She was very powerful, and the more she played, the more she understood the game.”

Herlihy’s numbers dipped slightly from last season, but she still led the PAC 8 in kills (425) and hitting percentage (.442). Her kill numbers put her in the Top 40 in California.

Factoring in the big numbers, team success and leadership each player displayed this season, Herlihy and Boege have been selected as The Tribune Co-County Volleyball Players of the Year.

Boege and San Luis Obispo’s Historic Season

Boege’s most memorable moment from last season is one that Herlihy would like to forget.

Heading into San Luis Obispo’s home match against Arroyo Grande, the Eagles had won 49 straight against league competition. A month earlier, San Luis Obispo lost 3-0. It was Boege’s last chance to do something she had never done before.

“I remember before the game started, I huddled everyone up and we had our little talk, and I was like ‘If we beat A.G., I will put down as my senior quote in the yearbook we beat AG,’ ” Boege said. “And that was when the team got super fired up and we were just like, ‘Alright, let’s do this.’ ”

Boege had 15 kills, seven digs and two aces, and San Luis Obispo handed Arroyo Grande its first league loss since 2011.

“During the game, I kept glancing at the score almost in disbelief,” Boege said. “It wasn’t shocking — I always knew we could do it — but it had never actually happened. So, it felt so unreal to be surrounded by my teammates and be doing that in that game.”

“It was everyone’s best game by far. Everyone was just on point,” she added.

“She’s a really crafty player, and really hard to read,” Herlihy said. “I think that was the best game I have seen her play in all four years.”

Three years ago, Boege could have never pictured beating Arroyo Grande or being the vocal leader of the team. When she arrived at freshman tryouts, she was skinny, short-haired and shy. She wasn’t even sure she would make the team. But not only did she make the team, she earned playing time on the varsity squad in the first match of the season and worked her way into a starting outside hitter spot on a team with seven seniors.

“My sophomore year, when everyone had graduated, I was like, ‘Alright, it is already my time to step up as the next leader,’ and I was captain starting sophomore year,” Boege said. “Someone has to take charge of the court — why not me? I know that I can get the best out of everyone.”

When Beddall arrived for her first season as head coach last year, Boege was so entrenched as the leader that Beddall knew that she would have to win her over before winning over the team. At times, Boege even pushed her new coach.

“One day we had school off, and I was like ‘Let’s just take the day off from practice,’ and she was like ‘No, we need to practice,’ ” Beddall said, adding the Boege was like an assistant coach at times. “I was almost the kid, ‘Like, honestly, Holland?’ ”

Boege and Beddall created a bond — a recipe for success — and Boege credits much of the team’s 23-10 record (14-1 PAC 8) and run to the CIF-Southern Section quarterfinals this season to her new coach.

“Before I met her, it was very shocking that we were going to get a new coach,” Boege said. “Here it was, senior year, and we are getting two new coaches? I was like, ‘What the heck?’ But she has just been amazing for our team.”

Boege gained a reputation for her work ethic. Every chance she got, Boege said, she would practice in a warehouse owned by her grandparents, which just so happened to contain a volleyball court built by the volleyball club 805 Elite. She spent countless hours, many times on her own, perfecting the fundamentals that would become her trademark.

“In my mind, I have always wanted to be the best I could possibly be,” Boege said. “My attitude with anything I do is: give it 110 percent or don’t do it at all.”

Herlihy’s Continued Dominance

Entering 2015, Herlihy was coming off an MVP season, three straight league titles and leading the CIF-Southern Section Division 2AA in kills. The pressure to continue to lead a younger team was greater than ever.

“It’s bigger news for you to play bad than it is for you to go out and get 25 kills,” Herlihy said. “After you start building that up, people are just sort of expecting that out of you.”

And with her success in basketball and volleyball, greatness has been expected for a while.

“Ashlyn is one of those players where, probably her whole life, players look towards her,” Santa Cruz said of Herlihy, who was also named Tribune County Player of the Year in basketball last year. “She didn’t ask to be the leader; it was thrown upon her, and she had to develop the skills to include everyone and to make everyone feel like they are part of the team.”

“The coaches said, ‘Hey, you are the leader. The team goes as you go,’ ” Herlihy said. “ ‘You have a bad practice, we are all having a bad practice. You energize them up, they are going to be energized.’ ”

Herlihy paired with Sonny — her big-hitting sidekick — again this season, but had to adjust to new setters and needed to help rebuild team chemistry. All the team did was win its fourth straight league championship and go 23-7. But a second-round exit in the CIF-Southern Section playoffs left a bad taste in Herlihy’s mouth.

“I really wanted to win CIF, and I still remember the exact play we lost on,” Herlihy said of the team’s 3-2 loss to No. 4 seed Laguna Beach.

Still, Herlihy has fond memories of her time playing volleyball.

“I just want to be remembered as a great competitor, but more as a great person,” Herliy said. “I’ve never been one to be crazy on the court. I just try to be humble.”

But most people who watch Herlihy will likely remember the way the way the ball sounds coming off her right hand.

“She is just so dynamic,” Beddall said. “She is a force to be reckoned with. You walk into a gym and you will leave remembering Ashlyn, whether they win or lose.”

As good as Ashlyn has been as the only player to start on four-consecutive league championship teams — the only player to do that since 1992, according to Santa Cruz — all of the coaches speak of her and Sonny in the same sentence. The pair were again selected by the coaches as PAC 8 Co-MVPs this season. And while the other coaches in San Luis Obispo wish her and Sonny the best — Sonny accepted a full scholarship to play water polo at Arizona State — they are also happy to see them go.

“If I had to do fantasy volleyball draft, they are 1 and 2 off the board,” Mission Prep coach Charles Fox said.

“If I could pick female athletes of the year, it would be them,” Atascadero coach Rachel Coons said. “They are unstoppable.”

“We had a good team,” Herlihy said. “We had CIF aspirations, especially with Emily returning. It obviously ended sooner than we wanted to. It was a matter of inches, a matter of a few points here and there.”

“I thought we were better, but overall it was a good year.”

Divergent Paths

Herlihy is the first player to be named back-to-back Tribune County Player of the Year since Arroyo Grande’s Olivia Trudeau did it in 2007-08. But Herlihy made the choice to pursue basketball, her true passion, in college. Later this year, she will join Santa Clara on a full scholarship.

“I didn’t market myself as much in volleyball as I did in basketball,” Herlihy said. “Some schools entertained both sports, like Chico and Hawaii.”

Probably not a bad choice, considering she is the favorite again to win The Tribune County Basketball Player of the Year, by averaging more than 20 points per game this season.

“I knew that I always loved basketball,” Herlihy said. “But the girls, the whole program, made me love volleyball so much more. I didn’t grow up playing volleyball. I just kind of picked it up, and people were kind of surprised.”

For Boege, she will continue her love affair with volleyball at Cal Poly, where she has been accepted as a preferred walk-on.

“Ever since I first started playing volleyball in middle school, I told myself this is what I want to do,” Boege said.

Boege, who has a GPA above 4.0, will be graduating early and will join the Mustangs this spring for its beach volleyball season.

Although Boege and Herlihy won’t be competing on the court anymore, their rivalry created a legacy of success and brought the best out of both players.

For Boege, a famous yearbook quote. For Herlihy, the echoes of powerful kills and a handful of titles.

This story was originally published January 23, 2016 at 6:55 PM with the headline "SLO High’s Holland Boege, Arroyo Grande’s Ashlyn Herlihy are The Tribune’s prep volleyball players of the year."