Ripon Christian volleyball advances to section final by defeating Bear River
The Ripon Christian girls volleyball team set goals at the beginning of the season. One of them was to make it back to the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Final.
The team standing in the reigning 2019 Division V champions’ way on Tuesday night was the Bear River Bruins, who entered the game on a seven-game win streak and went an undefeated 10-0 in the Pioneer Valley League.
Despite battling injuries from two outside hitters, both with a torn meniscus, and a starting right side with a torn ACL, the 14-0 league-champion Knights are headed back to the Division V finals after beating the Bruins in four sets, 25-14, 23-25, 25-17, 25-19.
“It’s amazing,” said senior Emily Van Groningen, a member of the 2019 championship team. “We wanted to do it last year, but we couldn’t because of COVID but I’m just glad that we get to do it my senior year and end with a bang.”
For setter Jenna Hofman and outside hitter Ava Van Groningen, it is their first trip to the finals.
“It feels amazing to just have a team that you can really bond with and connect with to get to this level and play.” Van Groningen said.
The Knights (35-5, 14-0) went ahead early in the first set and rode their lead to an 11-point win, but hit a rough point in the second. They had trouble receiving serves and made mistakes running their offense and the Bruins (28-10, 10-0) capitalized.
“They were a good team and I told the girls after the first set, we can’t expect them to just give us this match,” said Knights coach Kayla Koostra. “They came in here to battle ... and I think we just were a little bit flat, and they wanted that game a little more.”
Things changed for the Knights in the third set. Down by just one point, Koostra called a timeout to help her team regroup.
“It just felt like we were already defeated and I told them we got to have fun,” Koostra said. “We’ve got to get our heads up, stop looking mad or frustrated and just come together and play and I think it took a little bit to get back into that rhythm but once they did that we were able to close out that third game.”
After trading points most of the set, Hofman (44 assists) led the Knights’ offense that outscored the Bruins 9-1 to close out the third. They carried that momentum into the fourth set to close out the match.
Emily Van Groningen, a University of the Pacific commit, came up big for the Knights with 20 kills and four aces while Ava Van Groningen finished with a 15-kill,14-dig double double.
Ripon Christian will play Vacaville Christian, which is making its first section finals appearance since 2018, on Saturday, Nov. 6 at 1 p.m. at Ripon High.
In other Sac-Joaquin title games at Ripon on Saturday:
At 10 a.m., Modesto’s Big Valley Christian, a No. 1 seed, meets Forest Lake Christian
At 1 p.m., No. 1 Ripon Christian plays No. 3 Vacaville Christian
At 4 p.m., No. 1 Escalon meets No. 2 Sonora
This story was originally published November 3, 2021 at 5:49 AM.
