Clewis breaks school record in West Ranch postseason sweep 

West Ranch opposite hitter Dani Clewis (26) puts the ball over the net against Valencia outside hitter Kayla Rust (2) during the third set of Tuesday's game at West Ranch High School on Oct. 8. Habeba Mostafa/ The Signal
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A long road trip couldn’t stop West Ranch girls’ volleyball and setter Dani Clewis in their playoff opener.  

West Ranch defeated the hosting Roosevelt Mustangs of Eastvale in straight sets, 25-21, 25-21, 27-25, after another masterful performance from the junior Clewis. 

Clewis led the Wildcats (15-3) all over the court. The setter added 10 digs, three blocks, a trio of aces, three kills and 23 assists, which officially puts her name atop the all-time assist leaders in the West Ranch record books. 

“She has all of this experience under her belt and learned what it took to be successful,” Wildcats coach Jamey Ker said in a phone interview. “She learned a lot over the course of that freshman season. It just feels like she’s been on an upward trajectory ever since then with no plateau. I don’t say that often, everybody plateaus. Even the best players I’ve ever trained plateau at some point. I have not seen that. It’s just been an upward trajectory for three straight seasons here at West Ranch. So I’m not really surprised all that much to see that she’s breaking records already.” 

Clewis currently sits at 1,533 assists with a whole postseason and senior season left to go. Ker isn’t too surprised to see this record shattered and could easily see her climbing up the ladder in a few other categories. 

“She has not only more of the postseason to continue to tack on assists, but she also has another entire season with a good team next year,” Ker said. “She’s gonna shatter the record by the time she’s graduated. I’m very excited for her and honestly not surprised. When she got the start as a freshman, and knowing what the next four years were gonna look like for us with the development she was making and the upward trajectory that she was on, ultimately, I thought she was going to be a girl who broke a ton of records.” 

Roosevelt (18-6) was one point away from forcing a fourth game and possibly altering the outcome of the match. The Mustangs led 25-24 in the third set but Ker felt there was almost a comfort defensively for his Wildcats, as they knew exactly where the ball was going.  

West Ranch was ready for the big swing of Mustangs opposite hitter Ryah Brock and forced a sideout to tie the set at 25-25. One opposing error later, Clewis punished Roosevelt with a tough serve that ended the Mustangs’ season with an ace. 

“I told her after the game, ‘The moment that ball came off your hand. I knew it was an ace,’” Ker said. “It was just moving like crazy so the girl didn’t really have a shot at it to be honest. That was a cool way to finish it.” 

Ker felt his team wasn’t dominant on the court but was certainly in control throughout the first two sets before Brock got going. 

While history belongs to Clewis the night belonged to West Ranch, which now advances to the round of 16 in Division 2 play.  

Freshman Devyn Kobe had a great postseason debut with 18 kills on a .400 hitting percentage. Junior Joleen Reynolds added nine kills from the other outside hitter spot. 

Libero Alexandra Seres added two aces and 16 digs from the back. 

“I think honestly we probably played our best volleyball of the season last night,” Ker said. “It was really great to watch three straight sets of steady volleyball and beating another team that we probably shouldn’t have beaten in three but because we were so steady, we made them look a lot worse than they actually were … We don’t have a whole lot of weak points right now. Everybody was firing on all cylinders last night and playing really tight volleyball.” 

West Ranch will now return home for a second-round matchup with the Murrieta Valley Nighthawks (25-7), the second seed in Division 2. Another tough test lies ahead for the Wildcats but Ker is excited to see what his team can do against more elite competition. 

“It’s only gonna get harder from here,” Ker said. “It wasn’t even easy last night, so we’re gonna do our best over the next two days to prepare. As long as we feel like we’re playing our brand of volleyball, if we have good two practices, and those good practices are defined by us just playing with intensity, I think we’re going to feel a whole lot of confidence coming into Saturday. It helps to have a home match and I think the girls are loose and excited about being challenged.” 

The Cats return home to host Murrieta Valley on Saturday at 6 p.m. at West Ranch High School, where the Wildcats have not dropped a postseason game in five years. 

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