Pitman, Hilmar, Sonora, Stone Ridge Christian volleyball teams making section final encores
Hilmar’s Patti Harris and Stone Ridge Christian’s Ken Shaw don’t sit around feeling sorry for themselves.
But they could.
After back-to-back losses to Sonora in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV championship game, and then having to watch the Wildcats advance to consecutive Northern California title matches, including a run to the D-IV state title last year, Harris very easily could play the “that could’ve been us” card.
“This is my third time going to a section final,” said Harris, whose team will face Sonora (30-4) for a third consecutive season in the D-IV final Saturday at 2:30 p.m. at Lodi’s Tokay High. “The first two were heartbreaking.”
Shaw’s in touch with that emotion.
Stone Ridge Christian lost the last two D-VI finals to Turlock Christian and would almost certainly have faced them again this year had the Eagles not been mandated to move up a division after last year’s title made it three in a row for them.
“My wife jokes that we’re always the bridesmaid and never the bride,” said Shaw, whose team faces Woodland Christian (26-5) at noon in the Tokay gym. “But I have this core of seniors that started playing together way back in the seventh grade. I kept telling the parents, ‘This could be the first team to win a section title.’
“I thought it was going to happen when they were sophomores, and then I thought it might happen last year. I hope it’s this year.”
Though No. 3 Stone Ridge (20-10) must play the top seed in the D-VI bracket, the Knights will be without the emotional baggage that would’ve come with facing Turlock Christian.
Hilmar (36-6), however, still must tote luggage filled with memories from 2013, when it led Sonora 2-0, only to lose the last three sets, and from last year, when they were swept 3-0.
But Harris says her team has no qualms about facing the Wildcats another time.
“You know what? They’re a good team, but so is Hilmar,” Harris said. “We’re not intimidated by anybody.”
Nor should they be. When you have a player such as 6-foot-2 outside hitter Emily Baptista, who signed last week to attend Pacific, you tend to be the intimidator, not the one being intimidated.
Besides, the Yellowjackets have defeated heavyweights as Turlock and Tracy – which reached the second and third rounds, respectively, in the D-I playoffs – and Granite Bay, which will be playing for the D-II title on Saturday against Rocklin.
“We also beat Escalon three times and Ripon twice,” said Harris, referring to Hilmar’s Trans-Valley League rivals that also reached the playoffs. “And we got to watch Sonora play against Pitman.”
Pitman (28-6), which has closed its regular season the past two years by beating Kim Evans’ Sonora squad in five-game thrillers, will take on Pleasant Grove (36-4) at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Tokay. It will be a rematch of last year’s D-I championship game, which the Pride won in five games on its way to the NorCal championship.
Both Pitman and Pleasant Grove lost big hitters – the Pride’s Lindsey Vander Weide and PG’s Sumeet Gill both now play at Oregon – and still managed their way back to the championship game.
“They’re scrappy,” Pitman coach Kristen Pontes-Christian said. “They’ll set outside and set outside and probably try to run some quick sets out there.”
Unlike Harris, Evans and Pontes-Christian, Shaw knows next to nothing about his opponent.
“I don’t think we’ve ever played Woodland Christian,” said Shaw, who will rely on outside hitters Justine De Jager and Aubriana Vander Woude and libero Ellie Vander Dussen to pace his team. “We’re just looking forward to seeing new competition.”
This story was originally published November 19, 2015 at 7:53 PM with the headline "Pitman, Hilmar, Sonora, Stone Ridge Christian volleyball teams making section final encores."