Ripon Christian picked up its fifth straight victory Wednesday night over rival Ripon, 25-22, 25-11, 25-16, through a balanced attack led by newcomer Luke Dorn.

“I thought we played really well tonight,” Dorn said. He debuted for the Knights after transferring from Big Valley Christian. “We are still doing some things with the lineup seeing what works the best now that I am out there, but I thought we were ready from the start and limited mistakes, which is so important in volleyball.”

Ripon Christian (6-0, 10-4) finds itself alone at the top of the Trans Valley League standings, rounding into form after the team dropped some tough matches to bigger schools in non-conference play.

“We played some really good local teams early, and I think it has really helped us grow and become even deeper as a team,” Ripon Christian head coach Kevin Tameling said. “We know when we want to be playing our best volleyball, and I think we’re getting there which you saw flashes of tonight.”

For those in attendance, it was clear that Ripon (3-2, 6-9) was going to make things tough on the Knights early on. After going back and forth throughout most of the first set, the Knights were able to pull away getting to set point 24-17 on the verge of going up 1-0. Instead of conceding, Ripon fought back with kills from Armando Ayon (four kills) and Cooper Morino (three kills), then got consecutive aces from senior Cade Fulmer. In the blink of an eye, the score was 24-22, forcing coach Tameling to take a timeout.

“These guys showed fight there in that first set,” Ripon head coach Tara Maruyama said. “We could have gone away quietly, but they rallied there, and it’s something we can build on moving forward.”

For Tameling, the timeout was about resetting and getting back to basics. Ripon Christian received the serve from Fulmer on the ensuing point and Dorn was set up for one of his 9 kills in the match to put away the first set for the hosts.

“Volleyball is a game of momentum ,and we needed to stop the bleeding there,” Tameling said. “We made an adjustment to the way we were set up and put together a good play to close out a big first set.”

With the momentum back on their side, Ripon Christian jumped out to a quick 17-7 lead over the Indians in the second set. Dorn showed his versatility, racking up 11 of his 31 assists in the match, most of them going to senior outside hitter Mason Tameling, who finished with 15 kills in the match. The Knights would put away Ripon 25-11 to go up 2-0.

“We really cleaned things up after the first set,” Dorn said. “Obviously, we still have work to do and will continue to get better, but you didn’t see a lot of the self-induced errors later in the match that we had early on.”

Ripon Christian showed off the depth that will serve them well as they move forward throughout league play throughout the match. Six Knights recorded kills for coach Tameling including nine from middle hitter Darren Van Groningen and eight from sophomore Grant Wentworth. Libero Ian Brown helped to set up Dorn’s services with 24 digs on the evening, nine of which came in the clinching third set that saw the Knights cruise 25-16 to complete the sweep.

“We have a really deep team this year,” Tameling said. “We have some sophomores getting big minutes and some really good players that aren’t playing as much but are really helping us get better in practice, and it shows with performances like tonight.”

Both squads will play in tournaments this weekend before picking league play back up on Monday.

“We will continue to get better, and I have confidence we will come back and string together some wins in league,” Maruyama said.