RIPON — Ripon Christian used the height advantage of Cade Alger and Jacob Van Groningen to roll visiting rival Ripon 25-13, 25-8, 25-18 in Trans-Valley League boys volleyball action.
Alger hammered 16 kills with an ace.
“I think Jacob (Van Groningen) and I bring a lot of height and forces the other team not to be as aggressive,” the 6-foot-8 Alger said. “That allows us to attack the ball a lot on the offensive end.
“Height definitely helps and after that just swinging at the ball and putting it down.”
Van Groningen, who is 6-5, chipped in 15 kills along with three aces.
“I thought we did pretty well today,” Van Groningen said. “We used our height to dominate.”
The Knights (3-0 TVL, 9-3 overall) showed prowess from the back line as well with Braden Van Groningen (seven kills) posting seven aces and Ryan Dotinga added four aces.
“Braden (Van Groningen) and Ryan (Dotinga) have such tough serves,” Ripon Christian coach Kevin Tameling said. “On Monday when we played Riverbank, Braden had 16 aces and he was one of the leaders in the section in aces last year.
“He has been having problem getting his rhythm down this year but has really found his stride the last week or so.”
The Indians (0-2, 0-9) are a young team with one junior. The rest of the roster consists of freshmen and sophomores. They did not manage a lead until the third set and battled through most of it, forcing seven ties with the last one at 17-17 before the Knights closed out the night on an 8-1 run.
“We won our first set of the year Monday night against Atwater,” Ripon coach Tyler White said. “So, we had a little bit of a high coming into tonight.
“But this was a killer team we faced here so I was just trying to get us to focus on movement and communication because we are so young and so new to this game, we are still learning body motions and movements. When we got out of our heads a bit and started reacting and having fun together that is when we played our best.”
Lukas Van Groningen had 12 assists for Ripon Christian and Michael Kamps added seven.
Steven Barrios (ace) posted three kills for the Indians with Ivan Reyes (ace) and Simon DeFreitas chipping in two kills apiece.
Alger hammered 16 kills with an ace.
“I think Jacob (Van Groningen) and I bring a lot of height and forces the other team not to be as aggressive,” the 6-foot-8 Alger said. “That allows us to attack the ball a lot on the offensive end.
“Height definitely helps and after that just swinging at the ball and putting it down.”
Van Groningen, who is 6-5, chipped in 15 kills along with three aces.
“I thought we did pretty well today,” Van Groningen said. “We used our height to dominate.”
The Knights (3-0 TVL, 9-3 overall) showed prowess from the back line as well with Braden Van Groningen (seven kills) posting seven aces and Ryan Dotinga added four aces.
“Braden (Van Groningen) and Ryan (Dotinga) have such tough serves,” Ripon Christian coach Kevin Tameling said. “On Monday when we played Riverbank, Braden had 16 aces and he was one of the leaders in the section in aces last year.
“He has been having problem getting his rhythm down this year but has really found his stride the last week or so.”
The Indians (0-2, 0-9) are a young team with one junior. The rest of the roster consists of freshmen and sophomores. They did not manage a lead until the third set and battled through most of it, forcing seven ties with the last one at 17-17 before the Knights closed out the night on an 8-1 run.
“We won our first set of the year Monday night against Atwater,” Ripon coach Tyler White said. “So, we had a little bit of a high coming into tonight.
“But this was a killer team we faced here so I was just trying to get us to focus on movement and communication because we are so young and so new to this game, we are still learning body motions and movements. When we got out of our heads a bit and started reacting and having fun together that is when we played our best.”
Lukas Van Groningen had 12 assists for Ripon Christian and Michael Kamps added seven.
Steven Barrios (ace) posted three kills for the Indians with Ivan Reyes (ace) and Simon DeFreitas chipping in two kills apiece.
