Playing perhaps its best match of the year when it mattered the most, the West Valley volleyball team captured one of four CCCAA Regional championships Saturday night with a 25-13, 25-17, 25-17 sweep of the College of San Mateo in Saratoga. The win sends the NorCal #2-seeded Vikings to the 2021 CCCAA Volleyball State Championships Dec. 3-5 at Fresno City College. West Valley is making its second finals appearance in three years; the Vikings played in the 2018 title tourney at Solano College.
The Vikings (21-4) and the 7th-seeded Bulldogs (21-7) entertained the large crowd with some big kills, blocks and extended rallies before WVC pulled away with superior serving at the end of each set.
Set one featured five Viking aces, including one from Alina Valenti that gave WVC a 5-3 lead. The Vikings reeled off seven straight points to make it 12-3, a Kishton ace made it 13-5 and a Taylor Tullo back-row kills gave the Vikings a 14-6 advantage. Three consecutive Kate Blackwell aces made it set point at 24-13. A Monika Martinez Leon solo block on Blackwell's next serve ended it.
Five consecutive service points from Lolo Folau started off set two at 5-0 for an inspired San Mateo side. The Vikings crawled their way back and grabbed their first lead of the set at 9-8 on consective swings from Kishton and Leon and an ace from Blackwell. A thundering Tullo kill and a Sydney Rogers to Valenti quick-set gave WVC a 16-10 advantage. Valenti quick-set conversions put WVC up 17-12 and 20-16. A Blackwell ace on set point and a Tullo laser gave WVC the 25-17 win.
The teams traded sideouts to begin the third, until back-to-back Kishton kills gave WVC a 6-4 lead. A Valenti from Rogers quick-hit made it 16-12. The Bulldogs were within 18-16 until a Kishton kill and ace staked the Vikings to a 20-16 lead. A devastating swing from Tullo forced a CSM timeout at 22-17 and three Bulldog attack errors ended it at 25-17.
Kishton paced the stat sheet with 12 kills, four aces and four blocks. Tullo had only two attack errors on her way to 10 kills. Valenti had seven kills and three aces, while Rogers handed out 26 assists, Blackwell served up five aces, and Flor Porras came up with a team-high nine digs.
Joining West Valley from the north at the championship tourney are American River (25-6), defending champ Feather River (31-1), and Fresno City (30-3). (Seeding has not been announced.) Representing the south are Bakersfield (22-1), College of the Canyons (16-10), Grossmont (25-2) and either Moorpark (18-6) or San Diego Mesa (21-4). Moorpark and Mesa battle Monday to determine the final south team.
Information regarding championship tickets, livestreams, hotels, etc. is available at the CCCAA's "Tournament Central": https://www.cccaasports.org/sports/wvball/Championships
