Joel Van Groningen led a punishing Ripon Christian attack Wednesday as the Knights swept host Ripon with ease 25-11, 25-10, 25-13 in non-league boys volleyball action
Van Groningen utilized a punishing jump serve, tallying seven aces — three in a row at one time — and dominated at the net as well with 10 kills.
“It’s been hard getting my serves down going from club to high school,” Van Groningen said. “It’s a little different, and I need to figure it out.
“I’m working on the aces now so I can get better later in the season.”
Justin Hofman (16 assists, six kills) and Preston Zuidervaart (17 assists, two aces, two kills) had the job of setting for Van Groningen, Griffin De Abreu (seven kills, block) and Josiah Reif (five kills, seven aces).
“It’s nice setting for Joel,” Hofman said. “He gets the kill almost every time.”
The Knights (13-0) put up 15 aces.
“We are serving well,” Ripon Christian coach Kevin Tameling said. “Joel and Josiah (Reif) have been going in and out with the consistency of their jump serves, but today they were on. We were working on being aggressive, not letting up and not taking it easy.
“We have a lot of size in the front row and we like to utilize it. Guys are ready at the net, that’s what the front for is for. They always have to be ready for any ball coming over. We want easy points and we will take all the easy points we can get.”
The Indians (8-5) battled early in each set before the Knights took off on runs of eight, eight and six consecutive points in the first, second and third set, respectively.
“We were missing four players,” Ripon coach Tara Maruyama said. “We were making the best of it that we could shuffling people around.”
Jalen Wilson led the Indians with three kills. Colten Marino (three blocks, two kills), Garrett Bright (six assists, four digs), Martin Raygoza-Romero (four digs, two assists) and Jayson Ponce (two kills, two aces) rounded out the Ripon attack.
The Knights travel to Manteca today at 4 p.m. and the Indians will try and recuperate before traveling to Hilmar on Monday at 6 p.m.
Junior varsity
Ripon 2, Ripon Christian 1
The Indians dropped a close first match 25-27 before handling the next two 25-14, 15-7.
Jack Schooland led Ripon with eight kills two blocks and a dig. Luis Gutierrez posted 10 digs with two kills and two aces and Anthony Gomez (three kills, three aces) dished out 10 assists. Marquell Marshall (three digs, two assists, kill) added four aces for the Indians.
