Stone Ridge Christian volleyball settles in too late in title loss

Ken Shaw kept waiting for his team to settle in.

The Stone Ridge Christian High School volleyball coach hoped the experience of reaching last year’s Sac-Joaquin Section Division VI title match, coupled with two regular-season wins over Turlock Christian this fall, would give his squad confidence as it took the court at the Pavilion at UC Davis.

But the Eagles exploited the Knights’ visible nerves Friday afternoon, racing to a two-set lead. Led by senior Rachel Kaler, Stone Ridge finally found its footing, but the comeback bid fell short and Turlock Christian held on for a 25-21, 25-16, 19-25, 26-24 victory.

It’s the Eagles’ third consecutive Division VI title and second in a row over the Knights.

“We’ve got four starters back from last year, but basically everyone switched positions this season,” Shaw said. “I think there were a lot of jitters because of it. It was like they had stars in their eyes.

“We began to play better in the third set, but we just never got any consistency going and our decision-making wasn’t very good.”

Turlock Christian (20-17) looked every bit the two-time defending champ as it took a 10-2 lead.

Stone Ridge (25-10) seemed to shake off its initial nerves. Behind the steady play of Kaler (match-high 14 kills) and Treasure Gallegos’ presence in the middle, the Knights stormed back and took a 20-19 lead on a Justine De Jager kill.

The Eagles answered with a 6-1 run to close the set, riding consecutive Kaylene Bakin aces to a 25-21 win.

Stone Ridge found itself on the wrong end of big runs all night. Turlock Christian used a 10-3 run to break open a tight second set and take a commanding 2-0 lead.

The Knights found their legs in the third set and took leads of 6-2 and 13-8. Turlock Christian kept the pressure on with big hitters Tori Viera (team-high seven kills) and Nicky Sanders (five kills, four blocks) rallying the Eagles to an 18-16 lead. It was the Knights’ turn to close out a set, answering with a 9-1 run to keep the match alive.

Kaler did everything possible to will her team into a fifth and decisive set, opening the fourth set with four quick kills and a couple of aces to build a 10-3 lead.

“That was finally us in the fourth set,” Kaler said. “We upped our intensity and played lights out. We knew if we got to a fifth set, the match was ours.”

It never got there. Turlock Christian fought its way back and tied the score 24-24.

Viera appeared to cleanly hit a ball long, but the referee called a tip by the Stone Ridge block to give the Eagles match point. Tati Fabila sealed the title with an ace.

This story was originally published November 22, 2014 at 12:28 AM with the headline "Stone Ridge Christian volleyball settles in too late in title loss."