SACRAMENTO — A great run by the Ripon Indians came to an end Tuesday night in a hard-fought, four-set loss to St. Francis 25- 20, 25-27, 25-21, 25-20 in the opening round of the 2025 CIF State Division II Girls Volleyball Championships.
Just three days after dropping the Division III Sac-Joaquin Section final to Christian Brothers in a 3-2 thriller that saw the Indians come from 2-0 down to force a fifth set, Ripon would be moved up a division and assigned the 15 seed, which came with it a trip to second seed St. Francis, a Division II school coming off a loss in the Division II semi-finals to eventual champion Rocklin.
“To be honest, we’re really not sure how we ended up here tonight,” Indians head coach Gregory Soliz said. “We had some good results against some bigger schools earlier in the year, but we knew coming into the game it was going to be a really tall task.”
Led by outside hitters Adriana Dorn and Jorie Eskes combined with great energy on defense, Ripon (28-6) proved it could compete with St. Francis (33-8) from the opening whistle.
“We went into tonight knowing we had to leave it all out there,” the senior Dorn said. “I think we proved from the opening set what kind of fight we have, and that no matter the challenge, we were going to give it our best like we have all season long.”
Dorn recorded eight of her match-high 33 kills in a first set that sent a message that despite what they thought was a rough draw, the Indians were there to compete. The Troubadours, led by junior outside hitter Hailey Sutton, were able to pull away late in the opener.
The effort and intensity on both sides of the ball helped Ripon break through in a classic second set that was full of long rallies, including a 1-minute, 38-second thriller that saw Ashlyn Malone break a 25-25 tie to put the Indians up 26-25. A play later, an errant attempt from Sutton tied the match up at 1-1, 27-25.
“We knew if we were going to have a chance tonight, we had to dive all over the place and make plays,” Soliz said. “We did that for most of the night tonight, and it got us back into the match there in the second.”
Capitalizing on the momentum they gained from winning the second set, the invigorated Indians got off to a strong start in the third set that saw them go up 9-7 early on thanks to strong play at the net from Eskes (14 kills) and Malone (nine kills). St. Francis would show the depth and skill required to make a run to the Division II semi-final after going down, capitalizing on strong play from outside hitter Sophia Palmeri to take the lead 20-19 before going on to win the third set 25-20.
“Dropping that third set was such a back breaker for us, “Soliz said. “To expend so much energy to a much deeper team and come up short just proved to be too much to overcome.”
The Troubadours, having regained momentum back from their visitors, jumped on Ripon early in the fourth set, and despite Dorn and the rest of teams’ best efforts, were able to finish the match 25-20 to advance to Round II and end what was a great run for the Indians.
The loss to St. Francis officially ends a great four-year career for the outside hitter Dorn, who played in four section title games, winning two of them, to go along with a 2024 Trans Valley League Most Valuable Player Award. Dorn will go on to play at the next level at her natural position as a setter just down the road at the University of the Pacific next fall.
“I could not have been surrounded by a better group of coaches and teammates during my time here,” Dorn said. “Countless memories that I will cherish forever. We accomplished a lot here, and I was just happy to be a part of what is a really great program here at Ripon.”
Soliz and the Indians will return a large part of the 2025 squad in 2026, graduating just one other key contributor in middle blocker Olivia Neuman.
“I’m so proud of the way our seniors led from the front all season long,” Soliz said. “They set the standard that the rest of the girls will pick up now and we’ll go into 2026 with a great group looking to continue on what we are building here.”
