Following a win in the first round of the playoffs, the West Ranch girls’ volleyball team continued their strong play with a sweep at home over the Roosevelt Mustangs.
The Wildcats swept Roosevelt in straight sets, 25-10, 25-14, 25-18, and advanced to the Division 2 quarterfinals of the California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section playoffs.
“It’s congratulating the things we do well, but also moving on to the next,” West Ranch head coach Jamey Ker said in response to the win. “We have the weekend and a couple of practices before. So, I think it’s kind of a good thing for us to get this little break. It’s going to get them really hungry to compete. So, I think we’re excited about it.”
The Wildcats and Mustangs opened the game by exchanging kills and aces back and forth in the first set.
Toward the second half of the opening set, the Wildcats led 13-8 following a hitting error from the Mustangs and built upon their lead.
West Ranch played clean volleyball and won the first set with a 12-2 scoring run following the mistake from the Mustangs with Devyn Kobe blocking a hit from Roosevelt for the set point.
Following the game, Ker spoke of the need to start the game by making no mistakes and taking the lead early.
“We’ve actually been spending a lot of time on our offense and the tempo and really getting everybody to feel like they’re hitting their type of ball,” he said. “It’s the time we spent in practice with Dani Clewis, and the attackers has really paid off big time for us.”
In the second set, the Wildcats built a 12-4 lead.
And despite a rally from the Mustangs to stay within range of West Ranch, the Wildcats pulled away with clean offense and multiple kills to win the second set in dominating fashion.
After the game, Clewis credited the clean play on offense to her teammates, and how reliable they’ve been all season to land the kill every time she sets the ball.
“It’s so amazing knowing that my team has my back no matter what happens,” she said. “I know they’re going to get the kill for me, especially when the blockers on the other side are spreading. So, it’s super easy for me to run my offense.”
In the third set, the tides began to shift in favor for Roosevelt as the team was facing elimination. The Mustangs rallied in the third and fought back to give the Wildcats a challenge all game.
Following four straight points to open the third set, the Wildcats extended their lead to 15-10 but saw their lead dimmish as the Mustangs tied the set at 15 apiece.
After the Mustangs tied the set, Ker called a timeout to stop the opposition’s momentum and spoke to the team to get the Wildcats back on track.
“In moments like that, it’s about staying calm,” he said. “The reality is there really isn’t much to say there. We were having some passing problems, so they’re not really fixable from a feedback standpoint at that moment. So, it’s really just getting everybody to realize that I’m not panicking, and they shouldn’t panic either and kind of giving us a chance to catch our breath.”
And the timeout from Ker did present an opportunity for the players to catch their breath as the Wildcats came back to the court and went on a 10-3 scoring run to complete the sweep.
“He’s just telling us to play our game, keep staying with our same intensity,” Clewis said when asked what Ker said in the timeout. “Our serving needed to get a little get better, so we cleaned that up a bit and I think it really improved our play.”
With the win, the Wildcats continued their regular-season streak of not giving up a set to their opposition into the postseason in the first two rounds.
And with some time off until the quarterfinals, Ker stated that the break is well needed, but Clewis revealed that her head coach also has something in mind for the team to stay occupied in the downtime.
“We’re going to keep practicing every day,” Clewis said, “Coach said next week he wanted to do a little team bonding activity, so, I think that’ll be a good way to bring our team even closer then we already are and having intense practices for the rest of the week.”
The Wildcats will play Orange Lutheran in the quarterfinals at West Ranch on Wednesday with the game set to begin at 6 p.m.
