FULLERTON – Saddleback Valley Christian entered the CIF-Southern Section Division 3A girls volleyball final having won every set during its playoff run.
That trend continued Saturday night at Fullerton College, as the Warriors defeated Woodcrest Christian of Riverside in convincing fashion, 25-15, 25-14, 25-15, to secure the championship.
The Warriors (30-5) were led by Heidi Dyer, who had a team-high 13 kills, and outside hitter Jaelyn Greene, who chipped in 12 kills.
SVC coach Carmen Stratton said it wasn’t her team’s goal to sweep the Royals in final in order to protect its perfect run in the playoffs.
“Our goal going in was just to play hard, and if we get beat we get beat,” said Stratton, whose team won the Division 4AA title last year. “Doing it in three is always sweet and that’s kind of icing on the cake.”
Stratton spoke highly of Dyer and Shannon Geraty, who contributed nine kills and hit at a .412 clip.
“They’ve been strong for us all year and we’ve played good teams most of the year,” she said. “They always are fairly consistent.”
The first set was controlled by SVC as it used its size advantage to control play at the net. Marisa Ramsey had a nice run of great serves to help give the Warriors an 8-3 lead that forced a Woodcrest Christian timeout.
“We have a lot of good firepower at the net,” Stratton said, “and our setters do a good job of distributing the sets pretty well to get everybody involved in the game. It’s nice to have options.”
The Royals led twice in the opening set, but they they never led in the final two sets as SVC controlled the action.
