Trinity volleyball vying for first CIF-SS title

Trinity middle hitter Reagan Fernandez (3) goes for a kill in a game earlier this season. Photo courtesy Wally Caddow
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By Bryanna Winner
For The Signal

Trinity Classical Academy volleyball is slated to take on Oakwood School for the CIF-Southern Section Division 8 Championship this Saturday. Last week, the Knights beat the St. Bernard Vikings 3-2 while the Gorillas defeated the Rowland Raiders 3-0.

Both teams have an extra reason to win this match as they are both eyeing their first-ever championship win. 

“(Winning) would be a huge accomplishment,” said coach Rebecca Peluffo. “On the girls side at our school, this is the first time that any team has made it to a CIF finals, so just to have the opportunity to be in the final alone is a huge thing for our school, for our team and just for our program.” 

Trinity (20-9) finished the regular season first in the Heritage League with their last loss on Sept. 28 against Santa Clarita Christian School. 

The Knights find their kills leader in senior outside hitter Paige Kim with 230. She also has 10 blocks, 43 aces and 195 digs on the season. In the win against the Vikings, Kim had 14 kills and 16 digs. 

Kim is followed by junior middle blocker Reagan Fernandez, who has had 183 kills, 55 blocks and 28 aces. Senior opposite hitter Nicole Amoroso leads the team in aces with 52 and assists with 573 while junior libero and setter Riley Spector leads in digs with 346. 

Both are upperclassmen heavy as 10 of the 13 for Trinity and six of the nine members for Oakwood are juniors and seniors.

“We have definitely scouted them and know some different ways to shut down some of their players, but what it’s really going to come down to is just us playing our game and playing together, serving aggressive, being aggressive on offense and also taking care of passes,” said Peluffo.

MORE: Trinity girls finish first, boys fourth at Heritage League cross-country finals

Oakwood (16-8) finished their regular season third in the Liberty League after losing their final league game to The Archer School for Girls on Oct. 16 and won a wild-card match against AGBU to continue into the playoffs. Since this loss and the start of playoffs, the Gorillas have defeated their opponents 3-0 in every match.

Sophomore outside hitter Lila Mundy leads the Gorillas in kills with 415 followed by senior middle blocker Taryn Slater who has 320 kills this season.

“They are a solid team, it’s the finals so they are just solid all around,” said Peluffo. “They’re tough servers and they attack well. It’s going to be us defending that well and then on offense, getting kills down for us to get some reps. Especially on the serving end, we have to keep them out of system with our tough serving.”

The match will take place Saturday at 6 p.m. at Oakwood School in North Hollywood.

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