The article below originally appeared in the San Mateo Daily Journal and is being reprinted with permission.
CSM attacker Madison Williams celebrates during the Bulldogs’ 2025 playoff run. The Terra Nova graduate is one of eight returning sophomores to the Bulldogs’ roster this year. Photo by Kelceytc on Instagram
College of San Mateo coach Katie Goldhahn tapped into Sequoia volleyball’s 2025 playoff magic quite by chance.
Among the seven incoming freshmen on roster for CSM volleyball’s upcoming season, none bring more recent postseason hardware than attacker Katalina Tuipulotu and defensive specialist Joslin Fiel. The duo moves to the Hilltop after last season, when they teamed during Sequoia’s CIF Northern California Division III title run.
Goldhahn had been recruiting Tuipulotu since high school, and the explosive outside hitter committed to CSM after attending the Bulldogs’ final match of last year’s postseason. Tuipulotu was weighing attending Feather River College, but picked the Bulldogs after making the trip to Quincy to watch CSM fall 25-27, 25-11, 25-17, 25-20 in the Nor Cal regional finals to the eventual state champions.
“We’re really excited that she decided to stay home and chose us,” Goldhahn said.
Fiel — a prominent figure during Sequoia’s 2025 Nor Cal title run as a rangy libero — wasn’t on CSM’s radar at that point, but that changed during the offseason when Goldhahn attended a power league tournament at the San Mateo Convention Center. The Bulldogs’ 11th year head coach was there to to scout 2026 Palo Alto graduate Reese Japic, a 6-foot attacker who is now also on roster at CSM, who happened to play on the same Red Rock Volleyball Club as Fiel.
So, it came as something as a surprise to Tuipulotu and Fiel when they found themselves together again at CSM’s summer workouts.
“They’re just gamers,” Goldhahn said. “It just shows they know how to win and they like competition. They’ll be assets.”
CSM won’t be relying nearly as much on its freshman class this season. The Bulldogs have eight returning sophomores, including 2025 Coast Conference South Division Most Valuable Player, 5-10 opposite hitter Synia Hunt (St. Mary’s-Stockton), as well as two other first-team All-Coast South players in middle blocker Kendall Lee (Design Tech) and setter Alyssa Polanco (Valley Christian-San Jose).
As a majority freshman team last season, the Bulldogs were a force. They ran the table in the Coast South to claim their first conference title since 2022, and rode a No. 6 seed in the Nor Cal playoff tournament to a dramatic five-set home playoff win over No. 11 Sacramento City, before falling one win shy of the state tournament in running into Feather River.
“It was a hard pill to swallow,” Goldhahn said. “It’s hard to play in Quincy, just period, and that was our first time being up there. But our girls, even though we dropped that fourth set, we fought the entire time.”
CSM added a ninth sophomore to the mix this season in 5-8 opposite hitter Zoe Gaffney (San Leandro), a transfer from Ohlone College.
Even CSM’s freshman class brings a wealth of experience with the addition of 6-foot outside hitter Shea Hanson, who is returning to school after graduating from Notre Dame-Belmont in 2021, and was a sophomore with the Tigers’ last Central Coast Section Division IV championship team in 2018.
“She’s not skipped a beat being off,” Goldhahn said. “She’s coaching club and playing open gyms … so she never lost the touch. She’s a great player and a great teammate, and she hits a very heavy ball. … She came in established but I just think she’s going to be a force this entire season.”
Other San Mateo County-based players on roster this season include sophomore attacker Madison Williams (Terra Nova), sophomore middle Hannah Baltodano (Woodside) and freshman middle Rianna Petterson (El Camino).
The Bulldogs also rounded out their coaching staff with the addition of another familiar county name in Hailey Merkes, a 2017 Half Moon Bay graduate and four-time All-Peninsula Athletic League outside hitter for the Cougars. Merkes has previously coached at the Academy Volleyball Club and Notre Dame-Belmont.
Merkes joins a staff that includes assistants Nicole Rathman and Sofia Stemberga, and takes over for former CSM assistant Madi Yeomans, who moved to Arizona State to take a position with the NCAA Division I school’s beach volleyball program.
CSM opens the 2026 season with a doubleheader at Sierra College, Thursday, Aug. 27. The Bulldogs then travel to Fresno City College for the two-day NorCal vs. SoCal Showcase. CSM’s home opener in Wednesday, Sept. 16 against Reedley.
“I think we just talk about getting 1% better in the gym every day,” Goldhahn said. “We talk about playing our best volleyball in postseason. Expectations of what we need to do in conference, there’s no reason we should not be conference champions … but I think what I want everyone to focus on is these next three, four weeks where we have a preseason where you’ll see all the teams you’ll see in playoffs.”
