Ripon Christian volleyball advances to 2nd ever state championship with win over Head-Royce
Ripon Christian volleyball coach Kayla Kootstra uses one word to describe her team during its CIF Northern California Division IV Regional playoff run: Together.
When they were seeded ninth by the seeding committee, the Knights knew there was a good chance they would spend their entire NorCal playoff run on the road.
They spent the first two rounds traveling to San Francisco twice in three days and Cottonwood on Saturday, beating eight-seed Lowell, top-seed Urban and fourth-seed West Valley on their way to the NorCal regional championship against No. 11 Head-Royce of Oakland.
“Seedings are what they are,” Kootstra said. “Would we have loved to have a home game before the NorCal finals? Absolutely. But also I think that was the route that we had to take to get here tonight.”
The Knights opened up a quick two set lead at home on the Jayhawks on Tuesday night, but the visitors took the third. After regrouping in the fourth, Ripon Christian took home its second ever NorCal title, 25-15, 25-19, 15-25, 25-21.
The win brings a matchup with a familiar opponent in the state final Saturday at Santiago Canyon College in Orange. Ripon faced Central Valley Christian of Visalia in its season opener. Ripon Christian won, 3-0.
Kootstra has been part of both Northern California championship teams. The Knights won the 1999 Northern California and State championships. She played on the team with her now assistant coach Melissa Blanco.
“It’s pretty exciting,” Kootstra said. “Because it’s been so long since we’ve done it, it makes it that much more exciting for these girls. It’s a special group and to be able to be a part of both of the NorCal championships that we’ve had in different capacities kind of makes it come full circle.”
The Knights dominated the first two sets, but the Jayhawks fought back in the third. They changed up their attacking strategy and Ripon Christian couldn’t find an answer.
“They made a great adjustment and started tipping and roll-shotting, and we weren’t picking it up,” Kootstra said. “From there it was just one thing after another seemed to go against us. Honestly, we haven’t fallen apart like that in a while, so props to them for taking us out of our game and out of our system.”
In the fourth set, things turned around.
Jordan Vander Veen came alive, leading the team on a late run that included eight unanswered points. She had 10 kills in the final set including a kill on match point.
“Our coach told us if we really want to win this game, we need to figure it out with each other and come together,” said Vander Veen who finished with a team high 23 kills and six aces. “She really pushed us.”
Being seeded ninth, behind teams they’ve beaten this season made the Knights hungrier to prove they were better than others thought.
“I would definitely say we felt like underdogs,” Vander Veen said.”I think we came out ready to prove ourselves and we really wanted to beat anyone we faced just to prove that we were the better team.”
Ripon Christian saw it all in its run to the state championship. From sweeping the first overall seed to coming back from down 0-2 in the regional semifinals and on Tuesday, winning a Northern California Regional Championship in front of its home fans in a battle of the “Cinderella” teams.
Kootstra called the past week and a half a “whirlwind of emotions.”
“Every time we stepped into the gym for practice, I was telling the girls like you gotta take it in because this could be our last time on this court,” Kootstra said. “(We’ve been) looking each other in the face knowing that we’re a very good volleyball team, but we had to do it all together and for one another and not for ourselves. They’ve done an amazing job of coming together and overcoming a lot in order to get to this point.”
Kootstra has raved all season about how well rounded this year’s team is and that showed Tuesday night. Setter Megan Weststeyn finished with 36 assists and 10 digs, Avery McMurray led the team with 13 digs and Sydney Hoffman added seven kills.
They hope to take that into Saturday’s championship as they look to bring the school’s second ever state title.
“It’s really exciting because we haven’t done this since our coach was a player,” Vander Veen siad. “So it’s cool to have that for her and honestly, I’m just really excited. I knew we could do it and it’s pretty cool that we actually did it.”
This story was originally published November 16, 2022 at 11:16 AM.
