Ripon Christian overcomes injury to beat Ripon, advance to second round of state tournament
If there is one game that perfectly describes Ripon Christian’s season, it’s Tuesday’s CIF State Girls Division IV Volleyball Championships first-round matchup with rival Ripon High.
The teams split the two previous meetings this season. Ripon Christian won 2-0 in a tournament; Ripon won a nonleague matchup 3-1 nearly a month later.
Tuesday’s match was close the whole way, with neither team gaining much of an advantage, and to add to it, Ripon Christian setter Jenna Hofman hurt her ankle with the game tied 14-14 in the second set. Still, as they did multiple times through the season, the Knights rose to the challenge, beating Ripon (22-11) in five sets, 26-28, 25-22, 25-23, 13-25, 17-15. The win extends the Knights’ home win streak to 12 games.
“One thing after another has kind of been thrown at us unexpectedly,” coach Kayla Kootstra said. “I tell them all the time, it takes every single player on our team to get us to the next game, regardless of whether they’re on the court or not, and that was not more true than what it was tonight.”
No one embodied that more in the win than sophomore Leah Van Wyngarden, who stepped in from playing her normal position in the back row to replace the injured Hofman.
“Well, the first words my coach said to me was ‘Leah, I love you,’ and that already scared me,” said Van Wyngarden, who led the Knights with 21 assists. “But when she put me in at setter, all my teammates were surrounding me and saying that they knew I would do good and they would adjust to me.”
The underclassman played sparingly at setter in the spring season and this year was on junior varsity until being called up for the playoffs. She said the encouragement from her teammates helped her relax a bit, but she still was nervous.
“I was biting my nails the whole time.” she said.
The Knights (35-5) had three players finish with double-digit kills: Ava Van Groningen finished with 10, Avery McMurray added 11 and Emily Van Groningen led with 13, including the final point after smashing the ball back to Ripon’s side after its initial pass went over the net.
“The overpass kill was probably my most favorite kill out of this entire season,” Emily Van Groningen said. “We’ve lost to them every single year that I was on varsity, so just winning this was amazing. This game beats every other game that I played.”
The Knights travel to Redding on Thursday to play University Prep at 6 p.m.
No. 8 Escalon 3, No. 9 Dublin 1: The Cougars lost their first set at home but went on a tear in the second. Though the final two sets were close, they had enough to overcome the Gaels in four, 20-25, 25-14, 25-23, 28-26.
Escalon (30-2) has won 13 straight home games and will face the first overall seed in Northern California, Carondelet (23-12) Nov. 11 at 6 p.m.
No. 6 Notre Dame 3, No. 11 Central Catholic 2: Central Catholic went up 2-1 in the match with hopes of upsetting the host Tigers in Belmont. The Raiders (18-10) lost a hard fought fourth set and couldn’t overcome Notre Dame (17-11) in the fifth as they were eliminated from the NorCal Regionals in five sets, 23-25, 25-22, 21-25, 27-25, 15-11.
Sophia Castillon led the Raiders with 15 kills and four aces. Kate Cover finished with 43 assists.
The Tigers advance to the quarterfinals, where they host No. 14 Tamalpais (who upset third-ranked Balboa 3-1) on Thursday, Nov. 11, at 6 p.m.
