More so than the sport of football, women’s indoor volleyball is a game of momentum.
More so than the sport of basketball, women’s indoor volleyball is a game of runs.
Women’s indoor is a game of energy, both mental and physical, and last Saturday at the Saint Katherine Sports Complex in San Marcos, the Westcliff women’s volleyball team captured the energy, the momentum, and were on a n epic run — surging toward the California Pacific Conference championship — up 2-1 over defending Cal Pac champion, Park-Gilbert, and holding an 18-15 fourth-set advantage.
And then everything changed.
It was as if the Westcliff women’s volleyball team heard what the women’s soccer team had done the day before and said, “Hold my water bottle.”
In eerily similar fashion, the Warriors advanced to the California Pacific Conference championship match Saturday with a thrilling comeback win over a very talented and motivated Saint Katherine squad.
Westcliff’s 3-1 (24-26, 31-29, 25-20, 25-21) win was a defensive clinic.
What Happened? Westcliff hosted Benedictine Mesa at the Jordan Lawley Facility. The night was filled with high expectations from both squads. Westcliff and Benedictine were both tied with a record of 10-1.
1st set saw the Redhawks to advantage of the Warriors. Redhawks grab the 1st set with a score of 18-25. 2nd set saw the Warriors battle to a nice comfortable lead and easily grabbed the next set.
3rd set went the directions of the Redhawks. The Redhawks were in full control in the 3rd. The 4th set was going back and forth between the two squads. Westcliff were down by 5 points. The Warriors not wanting to grab their 2nd loss in a row fought hard to tie the match at 21 a piece. Westcliff's Leonel Chambel with two service aces and a kill by Brooke Scheidle forced the 5th and final set.
The 5th set is where all of the excitement and chaos occurred. Both Teams went back and forth tied at 10. Benedictine went up 12-10. A Kill by Elise Brown and a Block by Fiona Moesching and Brooke Scheidle tied the match at 12. Redhawks went up by 1, Coach Ma called a timeout to talk to his team. But wait, time was not given to the Warriors. The Official never heard the timeout call from Kenny Ma. Play continued at a crucial point, thankfully Maddie Shepston was able to take advantage of the confusion and chaos to hit a statement Kill for the Warriors. Tied at 14, both teams need two points. Benedictine came out swinging sailing their balls long for the victory to go to Westcliff.
The Battle of 1st and 2nd for the top of the Cal Pac Standings goes to the Westcliff Warriors.
Top Performers
Michelle Do - 23 Assists
Fiona Moesching - 16 Kills, 5 Digs and 5 Blocks
Elise Brown - 17 Kills and 7 Digs
Maddie Shepston - 13 Kills and 21 Digs
Leonor Chambel - 4 Service Aces and 13 Digs
Coaches' Notes
Head Coach Kenny Ma
"Tonight’s match was a complete 360 from last nights loss.
After last nights match, we were disappointed with how we let our lingering emotions of the previous points effect the present. We played as individuals rather than performing the way we have been doing all season, which is as a team.
Tonight’s match wasn’t the cleanest on our end and there’s still a lot of things that we could do better. However, the piece that kept us in the game and helped us with the win was our athletes effort and desire to compete. We asked that every single player on the court should make it an effort to be aggressive defensively and be a part of the game. We also focused on a having a quick reset button."
What's Next? Westcliff will finish off the weekend with a match against Park-Gilbert at 12pm for Westcliff's Pink Game.
The Westcliff women’s volleyball team couldn’t be faulted if they were looking forward to Friday night’s Cal Pac showdown with fellow league-leader Benedictine Mesa Thursday night at JLAW.
Friday’s contest is sure to be an epic showdown.
But Thursday’s match counted too, and the Warriors got caught napping in a surprising four-set loss to Embry Riddle, 23-25, 25-17, 18-25, 13-25.
The remarkable Westcliff women’s volleyball season continues.
The Warriors picked up their seventh straight Cal Pac win to start league play Thursday night in San Marcos with a gutty, reverse-sweep comeback win over Saint Katherine, 3-2 (17-25, 24-26, 25-22, 25-19, 15-12).
Make that eight straight.
After a lengthy, emotional reverse-sweep win over Saint Katherine in San Marcos less than 24 hours before, the Westcliff women’s volleyball team would have been given a pass if they didn’t have their legs, or their spirit, or their concentration levels at 100-percent Friday afternoon.
But no pass was needed, because the Warriors had zero drop-off in a 3-0 sweep of Las Sierra at Momentous, 26-24, 25-13, 25-20.
It was a very tight contest that was a point away from heading to five games at more than one point, but in the end, the Warriors fell to Vanguard Tuesday night at Goldenwest College in four sets, 25-18, 18-25, 19-25, 27-29.
Westcliff Warriors opened up their final day at the Our Lady of the Lake Tournament with a match against Friends University.
The entire match was all Westcliff. Westcliff as a team hit for 37 Kills with only 9 Errors. The Warriors also earned 37 Assists, 7 Service Aces, 48 Digs and 11 Blocks. Warriors went on to sweep Friends in 3 straight sets: 25-12, 25-14, 25-12.
Elise Brown clocked in an impressive match with 10 Kills, 0 Errors on .769 hitting percentage.
Michelle Do also had a great match at setter with 25 assists with 1 kill and 5 digs.
Mia Scheepens also came into this warrior squad with 6 Kills, 1 Assist, 1 Service Ace, 11 Digs and 2 Blocks.
We talked to Coach Kenny Ma after the match on the warriors win against Friends.
Coaches' Notes
" This win feels great to finally pull off as it's tough to lose two matches in 5 sets the day before. Honestly, this win was 100% a team effort. We were able to relieve some of our starters from yesterdays. Everyone that we were able to put onto the court shined and they were able to showcase how much depth we have on our team. Mia Scheepens definitely stood out the most to us as today she was able to showcase her ability to truly be an effective 6-rotation outside hitter. We are taking our teams mindset and attitude extremely serious for this tournament. As this is our season opener, we want to make sure that we establish the culture we want from the very beginning. We are using this weekend to really emphasize on our culture. We are focusing on being a team on and off the court."
Westcliff opened up the 2022 Season against the #23 SAGU Lions. SAGU took the 1st set. The Warriors took control of the following 2 sets. SAGU forced a 5th set showdown by winning the 4th set: 25-23. In the 5th set Westcliff tried their best to take a lead but SAGU found a way to keep their lead at arms length. #23 SAGU took the match 3-2.
We talked to Coach Kenny Ma after the match on his thoughts of his teams performance. "The match was electric and one of the best ways to open up the season. Even though we lost, I'm glad that we played against one of the toughest opponent on our schedule and that we got to our first 5th set match out of the way early on."
One of the standout performances from the warriors goes to Freshman Fiona Moesching making her debut on the team. Moesching put in a dominant performance earning a match high 23 kills on a .463 hitting percentage. "Our freshman Fiona Moesching was easily the player of the match....It was her first collegiate match and was the match kills leader with 23 kills. It was incredible to see what she was able to do as a freshman."
Coach Ma's closing remarks on the match, " Right now, we are just figuring our line ups and making adjustments to playing opponents that we know nothing about and have not seen them play. We need to continue to improve on our passing as one or two bad passes can make a huge difference in a game."
Women's Volleyball 2022 campaign is about to begin. Coach Kenny Ma has put together an impressive preseason schedule that will challenge a lot of the veterans and newcomers on this warrior squad. Westcliff opens up its season with a double match against The Master's and Life Pacific this Saturday. In less than a week, our Warriors will be heading to Texas to take part in the Our Lady of the Lake Tournament going up against SAGU, OLLU, Loyola and Friends. Finishing up the month of August with a match against Vanguard. We talked with Head Coach Kenny Ma about the upcoming season here is what he had to say.
All Aboard as New HC Cole Begins Fall Journey
May 13, 2023
