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HEMET — One of the oldest clichés is that it’s not easy to beat a good team three times.
But that exactly what the West Valley girls volleyball team had to do Saturday night at home against fellow Mountain Pass League member Elsinore to keep its history season alive.
West Valley needed only a little more than an hour to record that third victory over the Tigers, a 25-22, 25-14, 25-17 in a Division 7 semifinal match to earn the program’s first appearance in a CIF Southern Section championship match. Both of the league wins also were sweeps.
The Mustangs (15-18 overall) will take on Cate for the title next Thursday, Friday or Saturday at a site and time to be determined. They will look to join the 2008 boys basketball team and the 2023 girls swimming team as the only section championship squads in school history.
Deonys Ioane led West Valley with 11 kills and three aces, while Kamryn Hubbell added nine kills and six aces for the Mustangs. Both were without an attacking error for the evening.
“Elsinore’s a tough team that battled us in the regular season and we knew they’d be up for the challenge, but we played so well all the way around in front of the biggest crowd we’ve had all season and I couldn’t be prouder,” West Valley coach Shaun Pulsipher said. “That serving performance in the third set was definitely something to just marvel at and it really gave us the cushion we needed to survive a little bit of a late challenge.
“I still think we can be better though, heading towards a championship match.”
Elsinore (13-17) jumped to an 9-6 lead in the opening set after a kill from Madeline Fieraru. The Mustangs responded with a 6-0 run to take a lead at 12-9, forcing Tigers coach Lannie Maffucci to take her first timeout. Hubbell recorded a pair of kills, and Ioane and Aniah Lomas each had a kill of their own while combining on a block and during that run.
Six times in that first set Elsinore cut the deficit to a single point, but the Tigers couldn’t get the lead back. West Valley’s MiaBella DePhillippo ended it with her second kill of the set.
The service line indeed was the theme in the second and third sets.
Trailing 3-0, the Mustangs went on a 7-0 run to force an Elsinore timeout. Sheiann Rosales capped off the run with the first ace of her three on the night. Melanie Bravo added two of her three aces on back-to-back points, pushing West Valley’s lead to 14-6. DePhillippo once again ended the set with a kill.
And that was just the start of West Valley’s service prowess. Rosales’ second ace of the night gave the Mustangs an early led in the third frame. Hubbell then stepped up to the service line and served up six aces in a nine-point span to put West Valley up 15-3.
In total, West Valley servers came up with 15 aces to 11 errors during Saturday night’s win.
Hubbell is the last of her family to go through West Valley’s program but will be the first to play for a section title.
“To be the first in West Valley volleyball history to play for a title is just crazy, but I didn’t do this alone…it’s a team game and we worked so hard to get here,” Hubbell said. “We’ve enjoyed great support throughout this run, and we can’t wait to get out there next week with our crowd behind us and play for a title.”
Elsinore was led by Jaycee Hullar with eight kills.
Both teams will advance to the CIF State tournament, which begins November 11.
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