For the third time in five years, the West Ranch Wildcats are the Foothill League girls’ volleyball champions.
The Wildcats swept the Hart Hawks in straight sets, 25-9, 25-11, 25-11, and won the Foothill League title outright with two remaining league games
“We go into every season with the same goals,” West Ranch head coach Jamey Ker said. “We’re trying to win league every year, and it’s awesome that we were able to accomplish that and sort of hit that stepping stone and our sights are set to the future at this point.”
In the win over Hart (4-18, 3-6), the Wildcats (15-3, 10-0) took care of business at home.
Not only did the team sweep the Hawks in straight sets but also has continued its streak of not giving up a set to their opposition.
And although there are still two league games remaining, there is no shortage of confidence from the team that they can finish the year out strong.
“I think we’ve been really focused with all of our games and made sure that we didn’t let up with any of our energy,” Wildcats setter Dani Clewis said. “We were staying focused the whole time, staying intense the whole time, which really helped. We didn’t relax, we stayed competitive. And I think that’s what pushed us through to like, not drop any sets.”
As for Ker, he sees that statistic as nothing more than a byproduct of the success his team has achieved.
“It’s a byproduct, it’s not just the goal,” Ker said. “The goal is to win matches and how we win those matches and sometimes the set differential is out of our control. I think at the end of the day, if we control playing well and we prioritize the touch, then ultimately we’re going to end up taking care of business like we have.”
Clewis led the team with 26 assists across all three sets in the win over Hart.
The experienced setter has been able to spread the ball around to her teammates, as five different Wildcat hitters registered a kill.
“I trust my hitters so much that I know when I give them the ball, it’s going to be a kill,” said Clewis.
And trust she did. In all three sets West Ranch jumped to early leads over Hart with Clewis setting the ball up to her hitters.
The one hitter who had the most success in the game, with a .636% hitting percentage, was sophomore opposite hitter Devyn Kobe.
Kobe, who led the team in kills with 14 off 22 attempts, also came second in aces with three.
With another strong overall performance from his offense, Ker is eager to see his team continue at the pace they’ve set all year.
“I want to make sure that we’re feeling pressure to be great,” Ker said. “I played all my starters the whole time tonight and never changed the lineup and that was because I wanted to make sure that the first team was in sync and gelling well because we need to be doing that as best we can at the end of the year.”
The Wildcats don’t have any scheduled league game until next week, but that’s not stopping the team from playing any competitive games, as Ker and the Wildcats will travel south to San Diego for a tournament.
And from now until the end of the season, Ker wants his team to continue playing great and take that momentum onto the playoffs.
“It’s all about energy and gelling as best we can,” Ker said. “But other than that, I’m really pumped on the idea that we can find a really good rhythm with each other and as a unit of 15 and ultimately feel like we’ve prepped as best we can for what should be a really tough playoff run.”
The Wildcats pick up league action again on Tuesday at home, hosting Canyon with the game set to begin at 5 p.m.
