Doherty athletic tradition continues

By Kurt Wagner

After playing club volleyball last year as a freshman, Morgan Doherty made the jump to the Division I level, now playing for the reigning West Coast Conference co-champion women's volleyball team.

A three-sport athlete in high school, it was hard to keep Doherty off the roster this year as one of the team's defensive specialists. But this wasn't the case last year, as Doherty's initial attempt to join the squad coming out of high school was unsuccessful.

"I think when Morgan contacted us when she was in high school, we already had our team together," Head Coach Jon Wallace said. "We already had a really full squad, probably had 16 kids, and really weren't looking at anybody."

This didn't discourage Doherty from deciding to attend Santa Clara last fall, a decision that she had made her junior year of high school. Her older sister, Kendall, was already attending Santa Clara and played for the women's soccer team.

After spending all last winter playing for the club volleyball team, Doherty contacted Wallace once again about playing for the Broncos.

She was given the opportunity to practice with the team last January, where she proved to Wallace and the rest of the team that she was ready to compete with the best.

"She didn't have an easy route to get on this team, but she kept fighting for it, and that meant a lot to me," Wallace said.

"I'm really happy she's a part of our program now, because she's just a wonderful person to have in the gym every day, somebody who's really fighting to become the best she can be, but also fighting for this program to be the best we can be."

Doherty wanted to compete at the next level. "I'm enjoying being on the team a lot and I feel like I've improved a lot as a player as well. I'm getting a lot better coaching," she said.

Senior Anna Cmaylo remembers a nervous Doherty coming out to her first practices with the squad. Doherty would sit outside the team room before practices, waiting for the other players to come out, despite their invites to come in and join them.

"When she finally made the team we were like 'Are you going to come into the team room now?' and she was like 'Oh yeah, I guess I should do that now,'" Cmaylo said with a laugh. "She was too nice to where she didn't want to overstep any boundaries."

Doherty's work ethic has also earned her praises on the team.

"All of her teammates respect her a ton because she works so hard," Wallace said.

Doherty comes from a family full of Santa Clara graduates, including a number of former Bronco athletes.

Morgan Doherty's father, Kelly, who graduated from Santa Clara in 1978, played on the Bronco football team his freshman year and the soccer team his sophomore year. Morgan's mother, Thalia, was on the club soccer team during her time Santa Clara, before the university had an NCAA Division I program.

Once the Doherty's oldest daughter, Kendall, began playing soccer for the Broncos in 2004, Thalia and Kendall became the first mother-daughter soccer combo to pass through Santa Clara.

Santa Clara has become more than just a school to the Doherty family. Kelly and Thalia met during their time here in the basement of McLaughlin Hall at Club 66, which used to be a student bar. They were married in the Mission Church.

"It's just extremely rewarding for us to be able to be back at campus as often as we are, because we get up there four to six times during the school year," Kelly said in reference to their trips to watch Kendall and Morgan play.

"We just love the whole Jesuit tradition and Santa Clara and the family atmosphere," he said.

The Dohertys have been watching their children compete in athletics for years, as they are the parents of four athletically-driven children.

"We kind of worked by the rule of divide and conquer," Kelly explained. "Thalia would go one way on a Saturday morning, and I would go the other way and we'd have weekends with close to eight to 10 games and we'd basically come back and see each other at dinner time."

In a family with so much going on, the Doherty children have remained supportive of one another.

"There's definitely times where we get competitive, even if it's just card games or stuff like that," Morgan said. "But (we're) definitely supportive. My parents have always encouraged us to go to each other's games and just to be there to support."

With Kendall helping to direct Morgan towards Santa Clara, the Doherty's third daughter, Cailin, may not be far behind.

"I think just as kids growing up and seeing that (support), they just slowly became champions of Santa Clara," Kelly said.

Contact Kurt Wagner at jwagner@scu.edu.