Best in the North: Hilmar volleyball sweeps Bruins to claim second ever NorCal title
When the Hilmar High girls volleyball team needed motivation, all they had to do was look up.
Hanging on the gym wall are championship banners. Two blue pennants from Hilmar’s 2017 and 2018 section title runs.
The team looked at them in practice, when they needed to re-focus. When they needed a reminder of what they were playing for. No one on this year’s team was in high school yet which, in a way, makes them want their own championship even more.
“Whenever we’re a little down, we just tell each other we need to look up at that,” said setter Stella Pires. “We want one of our own for ourselves. We wanted it. We wanted it more than anybody else.”
Tuesday night, the Yellowjackets earned their own hardware at the state level. As the No. 2 seed in the CIF Northern California Regional Division IV playoffs, Hilmar (30-9) swept No. 4 St. Patrick-St. Vincent of Vallejo (29-10) to claim just the program’s second ever Northern California championship in a 25-23, 25-18, 25-23 win.
After Alyssa Colston put the match-ending point away, the team rushed to the middle of the floor. After the match, Hilmar volleyball players and coaches were congratulated by current and former Stanislaus District high school and club coaches in attendance, local players and former standout athletes.
Outside hitter and team kills leader Finley Rosa refused to let the championship plaque out of her grasp as she met with family members, posed for postgame pictures with friends and joined the rest of her teammates and the Hilmar student section in singing the school alma mater.
“Our coach kind of manifested this,” Rosa said. “She talked about it in the very beginning saying this is our end goal. Our end goal is to go to NorCals, to go to state.”
They’ve got the perfect leader to do it, too.
Patti Harris has led the Yellowjackets to league, section and Northern California championships during her decorated coaching career. She knows that now, more than ever, wins are tough to come by.
“It’s a completely different tournament,” Harris said. “It’s nothing like section games, it’s nothing like league. It’s tough.”
They advance to the D-IV state championship match at Santiago Canyon College in Orange, Calif. They play the first match Saturday, taking on the Southern California champion at 11 a.m.
Hilmar sweeps its way to state title match
The Knights and Bruins battled for three hard-fought sets Tuesday night.
St. Patrick-St. Vincent took an early 16-10 lead after a Hilmar timeout. The Yellowjackets then went on an 8-0 run, taking an 18-16 lead and setting the tone for the rest of the match.
“Sometimes we go on these long runs where we get it going and push forward,” Harris said. “It gives these girls energy.”
They played the rest of the first set tight, but pulled out a two-point win.
Pires started the second set off with an ace, but Hilmar could not pull away through the first half of the frame. After a 14-14 tie, the Yellowjackets went on a 6-1 run paced by a kill from middle Reese Ahlem and back-to-back Pires aces to take a 20-15 lead, giving them momentum to finish out the set.
Hilmar went up 18-13 late in the final set, but the Bruins did not go away. They scored four unanswered points as part of an extended 7-1 run to take a 20-19 lead. Hilmar responded with four straight points, taking a 23-20 lead and forcing a Bruins timeout. They finished out the match in a nail-biting final few rallies, allowing three points before putting the match away.
“It doesn’t even feel real,” Pires said. “We’ve worked so hard this entire season. Our coaches have put in hours of film, we’ve put in hours of film, studying everything that’s happening. We’re all so close, we’ve been playing club since we were little. We’re like sisters. When we’re down, we tell each other to play for the person next to us.”
Bouncing back from adversity
Rosa says she knew the Yellowjackets had what it took to win a NorCal title “from the very beginning” and they never let anything deter them. Not a second place finish in the competitive Trans-Valley League or a loss in the semifinals of the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs.
In fact, not making the section championship may have been the best thing for them. They earned a second life as anyone who advances to the Sac-Joaquin Section semifinals earns a NorCal bid.
“It took a change in our mentality that we knew we could do it and get through the harder times together,” Rosa said. “Just staying really disciplined on the court and executing.”
They had a few days to work on themselves, fix their flaws and grow closer. They knew that this time it truly was win or go home.
They made the most of their new opportunity, winning each of their Northern California regional matches in four sets or less.
On the journey they beat four section champions from three different sections across Northern California.
First they swept University Prep, the Northern Section Division IV champion. They beat Central Section Division III champion Bullard in the second round and Central Section Division IV champion Fresno Christian in the regional semifinals, both in four sets. In Tuesday’s Northern California championship, they swept the North Coast Section Division III champion Bruins.
“Obviously, we didn’t make it to our sections, but we beat other teams who won their sessions so we kind of have section titles,” Rosa joked. “But it’s been amazing we’ve come this far.”
Harris’ biggest message to her team was that the state playoffs are a different ball game. Hilmar had just a few days to prepare for a high-stakes match against a team they likely have never seen before. They spent the past two weeks working on what they do best. And watching a lot of film.
“This whole tournament, I felt like these girls kept getting better and better,” Harris said. “We had practice after games and all we would do is focus on what we are going to do. What our game is.”
While they did not add to their section championship total, they can bring home the program’s first state championship Saturday. Their last trip was in 2018, a thrilling five-set loss to San Luis Obispo for the D-IV title.
The Yellowjackets face South Pasadena (17-16), the No. 2 from the South. The Tigers went 7-3 and finished third in the Rio Hondo league. Like the Yellowjackets, South Pasadena lost in its section semifinals, falling to Oak Hills in straight sets in the Southern Section Division VI playoffs.
“I’m expecting us to have fun no matter what, no matter the team we’re playing,” said Pires. “We’ve come this far and at this point, we want to win really badly, but we also want to play for each other and have fun while we’re doing it.”
