RIPON – For a fleeting moment it looked as if West Campus was prepared for what Ripon Christian would be bringing to their Sac-Joaquin Section Division-IV Volleyball Championships debut. By the time the Knights were closing out a first game win, it was obvious that wasn’t the case.
Ripon Christian (25-7) rolled mightily in the first round opener, blasting West Campus 25-7, 25-9, 25-13 Thursday on its home court. The Knights, the reigning champion in the Division-V tourney, looked as talented as any returning section champion would hope to look in the opening round – of any division.
“We’re playing well and we do a lot of good things,” Ripon Christian head coach Tiger Shelton. “What I’m really proud of is the fact that this isn’t something that just happened, theses girls are dying to do this. This is something where they’re just chomping at the bit to play like this.
“And that is kind of how I want them to be.”
West Campus simply was overmatched in nearly every facet of the contest. The Warriors put together a 21-win season, so by no means was the club undeserving. Yet, the challenges that plagued West Campus in the opening game, hurt them late.
“We missed some key serves and we had bad balls where we could have had better passes on,” Warriors head coach Paris Kidd. “So if we can’t get the ball to our targets to set our hitters up it gives a team like this with great hitters a chance to get an easy ball back over.”
Kristy Van Diver and Cassidy De Rousse were dominant at the net and junior standout Andie Shelton was dominant everywhere. She had a pair of impossible-to-handle kills in the opening game and then closed it out with eight straight service points with two aces.
Brittany Petlansky was also valuable in the lopsided win, banging home seven kills and sending down three aces. Shelton finished with a game-high nine aces.
The Knights will have a familiar foe come into their gym for their second-round matchup, as No. 12 seed Ripon High upset No. 5 seed Summerville. The Indians swept Summerville to set up the cross-town showdown Thursday at 7 p.m.
