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Ripon, RC on the road for quarterfinals
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Ripon and Ripon Christian are heading to Gold Country tonight for their Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV playoff matches.

Sixth-seeded Ripon (19-10) will be met by No. 3 Calaveras (11-6), while No. 8 Ripon Christian (26-6) gets the daunting task of facing the tournament’s top seed and defending champion Sonora (30-5).

Adrienne Beltrami and her Indians are rarin’ to go after their impressive 25-16, 25-20, 25-13 sweep of Central Catholic (16-10) on Tuesday. She feels her team is peaking at just the right time after its run through the rugged Trans-Valley League schedule.

“It’s really nice to see everything we’ve been working on all season come together,” Beltrami said after Tuesday’s win. “It’s been like this for about the last three weeks. We’re staying calm and cool but we still have that fire. That’s where we want to be.”

Beltrami likes Ripon’s chances against Calaveras, which opened the season with a four-game win over Central Catholic. The Redskins of San Andreas finished in a second-place tie in the Mother Lode League and toppled Highlands 25-11, 25-11, 25-18 in the first round.

Seeing good competition away from home is nothing new to these young Indians, a group that includes four key sophomores that played No.2 Hilmar and No. 4 Escalon tough in TVL matches.

“They’re a strong team,” Beltrami said of Calaveras. “Obviously we’re going to have to travel, and being in their home gym is always interesting. We travel well and we do well with any kind of situation like that.

“Every year we have to play Escalon twice and there’s always big hype when we play Hilmar so we’re used to it. I’m not worried about my kids handling it.”

Sonora didn’t lose a single set en route to seizing the MLL championship. The Wildcats narrowly lost a five-game match to Menlo School in last year’s CIF Northern California Regional Championships title match.

Southern League champion Ripon Christian is coming off a hard-earned 29-27, 21-25, 27-25, 25-17 win over West Campus in the 8-9 matchup.