After finishing as finalist in the Division 2 Southern Section playoffs, the West Ranch Wildcats redeemed the defeat with a win at home over the Redlands Terriers in the first round of the Division 1 California Interscholastic Federation state playoffs.
The Wildcats defeated the Redlands Terriers in four sets, 25-19, 21-25, 25-14, 25-13, and advanced to the round two of the Division 1 playoffs against Bishop Montgomery.
“The win just allowed ourselves to bounce back a little bit. It’s a quick turnaround from having a pretty devastating loss on Saturday,” West Ranch head coach Jamey Ker said. “So, for us to come out and find a way to win tonight is important. I don’t think we played our best volleyball, but maybe shaking off a little bit of the rust from the weekend, I think was a good thing for us.”
The first-round victory in the state playoffs serves as a much-needed reset for the program following the loss to Santa Margarita in the Division 2 Southern Section finals.
“It’s redemption honestly,” Ker said. “It’s kind of the word that keeps coming to mind. It’s like, we have a shot at it, and we’ve earned the shot to be in the state playoffs, right?”
The Wildcats were sure to make the most of their shot.
In the first set, the teams battled back and forth and were tied at 11 apiece following a West Ranch offensive error.
But after a 9-3 scoring run, the Wildcats took a 20-14 lead that was highlighted by timely blocks from seniors Grace Kelley and Dani Clewis.
The Wildcats closed out the set with the win on an explosive Devyn Kobe kill.
But in the following set, the Wildcats trailed throughout most of the set and lost after costly mistakes from the West Ranch offense killed any momentum to dig out of the hole.
Fortunately for the Wildcats, those mistakes didn’t carry onto the third or fourth sets.
A decisive third-set win and a statement victory in the fourth featured clean defensive play from the Wildcats in what was a much-needed sight for Ker following the second set defeat.
“I think we just got a little complacent,” Ker said, in response to the second set loss. “So, it’s all about getting the team back on the same page and making sure everyone’s in this on the same page emotionally. If we get there and we hang there, then it’s hard to beat us.”
With the win, the Wildcats will host another state playoff game at West Ranch High School on Thursday, an advantage Ker would take any day over having to travel.
“They can have a lunch, they can have a dinner and then come in, and we can still feel like we get a good warm up,” he said. “Whereas there’s a lot more planning and other distractions that occur when we have to travel a long distance.”
Regardless, the feeling around the team is a need to prove themselves again following a tough loss in the Southern Section finals.
As for Ker, his job as a coach has been to remind his players that having the opportunity to keep playing is a privilege in itself and not let last weekend’s loss define the team’s season.
“You try to have this conversation about not letting one match define an entire season and it’s hard to do that when the one match loses the CIF championship,” he said. “Fortunately, because of the advent of the state championships and us working hard to get here, we get an opportunity for that to not define our entire season and what we do moving forward is what defines the rest of our season.”
The Wildcats host the Bishop Montgomery Knights on Thursday at West Ranch High School with the game set to begin at 6 p.m.
