By Brandon Petersen
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 Firebird squad Friday at Saint Katherine.
Westcliff's 3-1 (24-26, 31-29, 25-20, 25-21) win was a defensive clinic.
The Warriors' back row was absolutely insane, as it dug out fireball after fireball, and set a tone with expertly-timed blocking that the offense began to feed off of in the second set.
Speaking of that second set, it may go down as the Warriors' best of the season.
Finding themselves down as much as six points after losing an intense first set, the Warriors' scrapped their way back into the match in the middle of their rival's den.
With the Firebirds on the brink at 24 points, Westcliff was able to tie it up and force more action.
The Warriors would then go on to face four more set points for the Firebirds, but won each and every one before finally capturing the momentum and closing it out at 31-29.
"Kudos to our players for ignoring the scoreboard and understanding what they are competing for," Westcliff head coach Kenny Ma said. "It didn't matter what was on the scoreboard, because there were so many times, on both sides of the court, where one team was leading by three, or four, or five points, and our women just kept battling.
"That's what they're focused on — every point is a championship point."
Brooke Scheidle was an integral part of Ma's women's beach team that won the Cal Pac championship last spring.
Bringing that type of experience into the match, Scheidle did the all the little things right, and that started with a series of blocks in the second set. She finished the game with six total.
In the fourth set, she was there when the Warriors needed her most, picking up a momentum-swinging block and finding the open spot in the Firebird's defense for a teardrop winner that ended a Saint Katherine streak.
But Scheidle wasn't alone.
Perhaps the best player on the floor Friday was Leonor Chambel, who time after time came up with incredibly difficult digs that saved critical points, and set up the Warriors' offensive rhythm.
Ava Himstreet was great in the back row as well, collecting more than her fair share of eye-popping saves.
"Just a ridiculous day of defense," Ma said. "We just reminded our players what they are playing for.
"Our game plan coming in was what we introduced as our philosophy on Day 1 back in the summer. We call it the 'Infinity Stones,' which are serving, serve receive and defense.
"We always want to make sure we take care of those three things, because they will lead us to a championship. We did a really good job of focusing on that today."
Michelle Do was on rhythm with her hitters all afternoon and passed with precision, benefitting Fiona Moesching, Elise Brown and Maddie Shepston, who did what they do — ferociously finish.
Shepston, who leaps out of the gym, seemed to catch even more hang time than she usually does for a number of aggressive, tone-setting kills that the Warriors needed to counter the Firebirds on their home floor, in front of their home crowd.
Chambel finished the match with 27 digs, and Do had 14 of her own.
Do finished with 28 assists, while Lina Ellila set up 23 kills.
Moesching had 18 of those kills and Brown had 14.
Shepston finished with 11 digs and nine kills.
Abbey Beckwith turned in seven kills and two blocks.
The Warriors are on the brink of their first Cal Pac championship.
The only thing standing in their way is Park Gilbert.
Not bad, by the way, for a couple of schools that both joined the league just a year ago.
First serve of the Cal Pac championship match is scheduled for 2 p.m. at Saint Katherine's gym.
