The magical ride of a season will make at least one more stop for the Trabuco Hills girls volleyball team.
After capturing the program’s first CIF title last week, the Mustangs started their CIF Southern California Division I Regional playoffs as the sixth seed. The Mustangs opened with a road victory over Cathedral Catholic, then added another one Saturday, knocking off host Mater Dei, 25-22, 15-25, 25-18, 19-25, 15-11.
Trabuco Hills (31-4) advances to Tuesday’s regional final against Redondo Union. The winner of that match will move on to the CIF State Final, Dec. 5.
“It is the kids,” Trabuco Hills coach Craig Moothart said. “It is their team. They’re going to take it as far as they can. There’s just no giving up. This was the first five set match we’ve played in all year. This is new territory.”
After dropping the fourth set, the Mustangs started the fifth on the wrong foot. Mater Dei jumped out to a 4-1 lead, but to the Mustangs’ credit, that start didn’t shake their confidence.
Down 6-4, the Mustangs scored four consecutive points, the final coming on a block from Jillian Wheaton for their first lead of the set, 8-6. It was a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
“If the kids are smiling and having fun and if they’re working together through the thick and thin and caring in the huddles, I just see in their spirit that they’re going to fight,” Moothart said. “They trust each other and all other of the moving parts are there.”
One of those moves came early in the match when junior outside hitter Shawnee De Oliveira went down with an apparent ankle injury in the first set. Moothart inserted sophomore Paige Krenik and she responded with nine kills.
Allison Kantor led the Mustangs with 25 kills.
“That’s a kid that loves volleyball,” Moothart said of Krenik. “She loves the game and has a huge heart and she kinds of thrives in this (playoff) element, the other night against Cathedral Catholic, she showed that she wants the ball. I’m super proud of her embracing the moment.”
Rachel Ritchie led the Monarchs with 17 kills, Shannon Scully and Abbie Cherin had 12 and nine, respectively.
“Credit them for coming through at the end of the games,” Mater Dei coach Dan O’Dell said. “Game one, I don’t think we came out ready to play. We obviously showed up at times, games two and four, we played well, but what it came down to is they made plays at the end.”
In Division III:
Valley View of Moreno Valley 3, Saddleback Valley Christian 2: The Warriors played their fourth consecutive five-set match. Unfortunately, this time, they were unsuccessful, falling to the Eagles, 27-25, 15-25, 21-25, 25-13, 15-7.
Contact the writer: dcalhoun@ocregister.com
