Canyon girls’ volleyball secures playoff berth with road win  

The Canyon girls’ volleyball team has secured a spot in the playoffs with a big win on the road over its rival, Hart.  

The Cowboys defeated the Hawks in four sets, 23-25, 25-20, 25-18, 25-19, and finished the regular season third in the Foothill League standings.  

“It feels great to split third with Valencia. We had a really successful year last season and it’s difficult to re-create success consecutively, especially after graduating eight seniors,” Canyon girls’ head coach Samantha Holcombe said. “But the team worked hard this season, and learned to work together with new additions and be successful themselves.”  

Prior to the game, much was at stake for Canyon (13-23, 6-6). The team had to defeat Hart (6-19, 4-8) on the road or miss the playoffs entirely following a loss to the Hawks earlier in the year.  

And with the Cowboys splitting the season series with Valencia, Canyon shares the third spot in the standings and clinched the automatic playoff berth with the win on Wednesday.  

“Both teams had to leave it all on the court to clinch the last playoff spot,” Holcombe said. “Their nerves settled after the first set, and they started to gel and play good volleyball. We’ve been doing a much better job about getting more of our hitters involved and moving the ball around, helping with our success.”  

In the first set, the teams battled back and forth, exchanging leads. With the set tied at 20 apiece, the Hawks scored three in a row with Olive Moore highlighting the run with an explosive kill.  

Canyon tied the set back at 23 following mistakes by Hart, but in the end the Hawks pulled through to win the set.  

In the second and third sets, Canyon’s offense cleaned up mistakes to win the game.  

“It is great to win late in the season as we desperately needed to after having a rough beginning to league,” Holcombe said. “Finishing strong in the league is great preparation before the playoffs. Hopefully we can keep the momentum going into some tough playoff opponents.” 

As for Hart, the loss placed the team in sixth in the Foothill League standings. But the Hawks were still in postseason contention until the final day of the regular season if the team were to win at home on Wednesday.  

Canyon joins Saugus, Valencia and West Ranch who all earned automatic playoff berths via the standings.  

But there will also be a fifth team joining as Castaic secured an at-large spot in the playoffs that was handed out by the California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section.  

After the game, the Canyon players learned that the win secured them a spot in the postseason, an achievement that leaves Holcombe proud but striving for more as she wants the team ready for what’s next. 

“The girls are excited, especially not knowing we secured the playoff spot until yesterday’s win,” she said. “I think there’s an expectation set since we did well last season, but we’re focused on one game at a time.”  

Canyon and the other playoff participants will wait for the CIF-SS to release the girls’ volleyball playoff matchups on Saturday at 9 a.m.