Titles for two
- Share via
Mike Sciacca
Jennifer and Martha Gardikas have been playing competitive
volleyball for so long that it was bound to happen.
In late November, Martha, an 18-year-old senior at Marina High,
helped lead the Vikings to the 2002 CIF Southern Section Division I-A
girls’ volleyball title.
Marina defeated top-ranked Mira Costa in the championship match
played at Cypress College on Nov. 23.
Two weeks later, her older sister, Jennifer, who turns 20 in
January, helped guide Golden West College to an unprecedented 10th
consecutive State championship.
The sixth seed Rustlers defeated host and second seed Delta
College of San Joaquin in the Dec. 7 final.
Jennifer was able to watch Martha and Marina win the school’s
second CIF title in five years, but Martha was unable to make the
trip north to watch Jennifer and Golden West once again turn the
state tournament into the “Rustler Invitational.”
The first time the sisters doubled up like this was at the 2000
Junior Nationals in Salt Lake City, when Martha played for a 16’s
open squad that won a silver medal and Jennifer was on an 18’s club
team that won a gold medal.
As volleyball players, the two have similar talents and have won
similar honors.
As sisters, the two are close.
“We get along very well, although with such different schedules
right now, we don’t see each other that often,” Martha Gardikas said.
“We still spend time together whenever we can. It’s pretty special
for both of us to be able to win major volleyball titles so close to
one another.”
Martha Gardikas played for two years at Huntington Beach High
before transferring to Marina. Her senior year culminated in her
earning first-team All-Sunset League and second-team All-CIF.
“Winning CIF was such amazing experience,” she said. “Everything
just came together, but our team worked extremely hard to become a
championship team. We just believed and stayed focused. What’s
amazing is that we won this title one year after not playing so
well.”
Martha Gardikas said the turning point in Marina’s 2002 season
came very early -- it was the first game of the season, and the
opponent was Corona del Mar.
Marina was down two games in that match, but rallied back to stun
the Sea Kings.
“That was a huge confidence boost to win against a team of
Corona’s caliber,” she said. “From that point on, all of our games
were like that. We never gave up and put it all on the line in every
match.”
Jennifer Gardikas, who prepped and earned all-league status at
Huntington Beach High, ended up coming to Golden West College after
the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001.
Jennifer was a student and athlete at New York University, playing
women’s volleyball on a team that also included former Huntington
Beach High teammate and childhood friend Serena Bountour, when the
terrorists attacked.
After the attacks, her coach gathered the women’s volleyball team
and had them find shelter in a building that was two floors below
court level of the university gym, and the team stayed put in the
bomb-shelter-like room until later that evening.
Jennifer Gardikas managed to get a flight out of La Guardia
Airport on Friday the week of the attacks.
“It seemed so surreal, but we could see it right in front of us,”
she said, noting that the NYU campus was less than two miles, or 20
blocks, from the World Trade Center towers. “I was able to talk with
my family, and we had a TV so we could get news updates. Before the
attacks, I hadn’t planned to come home until Christmas, but I was
able to get a flight home on that Friday.”
She never went back to NYU.
“I talked things out with my family, and they supported me with
whatever I wanted to do, although my mom did want me to stay home,”
she said. “I was going to go back, but I weighed everything and ended
up staying here.”
Through the help of Rustlers women’s volleyball coach Albert
Gasparian, Jennifer Gardikas was able to enroll at Golden West, and
went on to earn a starting spot on the team, a team loaded with
outside hitters, including Jennifer.
She started for the Rustlers in the state tournament and led
Golden West in kills in a tournament-opening win.
Jennifer Gardikas learned this week that she had earned first-team
All-Orange Empire Conference honors.
“It’s been a great year, but it’s so strange to think what a
difference a year can make,” she said. “I was in New York and having
a great time going to school and playing volleyball, and then the
attacks ended up altering everything. It’s really interesting how
things work out.”
* MIKE SCIACCA covers sports and features. He can be reached at
(714) 965-7171 or by e-mail at [email protected].
All the latest on Orange County from Orange County.
Get our free TimesOC newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Daily Pilot.