Paloma Valley falls just short in CIF volleyball finals

Gabby Hollins follows through with a kill past the block attempts of Ontario Christian defenders. Menifee 24/7 photos by Doug Spoon

The Paloma Valley High girls volleyball players might be wondering what they have to do to beat Ontario Christian and win a CIF Southern Section title.

Without a doubt, the Wildcats are getting just about as close as you can get without claiming the trophy.

In a match that could’ve gone either way, Ontario Christian held off one final Paloma Valley rally to win its second consecutive CIF-SS title over the Wildcats, a five-set thriller in the Division 3 finals at Cerritos College.

Down 2-1 in sets, the Wildcats rallied to score a 25-18 victory in the fourth set, with kills by Lizzy Markovska and Gabby Hollins scoring the final two points. That sent the match to a decisive fifth set, which has added pressure because it is played to only 15 points.

That pressure mounted on the Wildcats when they fell behind 6-0 to start the decisive set. To their credit, they fought back to tie the score at 7-7 with a successful tip by Shannon Dunkin, the block of a Knights attempted kill and two kills by Markovska leading the way.

Ontario Christian pushed its lead back up to 12-8, taking advantage of a couple Wildcat errors and relying on the steady one-two punch of Peyton Tazelaar (24 kills in the match) and Jenna Holmes (21 kills). Two Markovska kills and a block by Rachel Lowe helped the Wildcats stay in the match and actually stave off match point three times, but a final block attempt of a Giselle Vogel kill failed and the match was over.

Paloma Valley's Lizza Markovska drills a shot past defenders for a kill on Saturday.

The Knights’ final winning margin was this slim: 25-18, 18-25, 25-21, 18-25, 15-13. The fact that the winner was Ontario Christian perhaps hurt just a little more. Last season, the Knights beat the Wildcats in four sets in the CIF divisional final at Paloma, then defeated the Wildcats in straight sets a week later in a cramped and noisy Ontario Christian gym in the second round of the CIF State Regionals.

Paloma Valley coach Stephen Kaas knew that motivation was not a problem for his team this time, making the realization that the Wildcats’ effort was not quite enough that much harder to take.

“The girls really wanted it,” Kaas said. “I think that’s what they’re still learning to balance -- and getting the effort when you want it. They’re still learning how to maintain their composure. They bounced back well, but in a game to 15 and you’re down by three, it’s hard to do.

“They almost got there. But you’re playing a good team, and you can’t give a good team that many chances.”

Ontario Christian improved its overall record to 33-3. Paloma Valley now has a 30-7 record. Over the last two seasons, the Wildcats are 58-15. As it did last year, Paloma’s season will continue in the CIF State tournament, with the pairings to be released Sunday for Tuesday’s first round.

Kaas and the Wildcats know full well that they might meet up with the Knights again for the fourth time in the last two postseasons.

Kaas was asked what he told his players during timeouts in the fifth set when the Wildcats quickly fell behind 3-0 and when they trailed again 10-7 after rallying to tie the score.

“Really, we just needed to play our game,” Kaas said. “It’s still a big environment and we tightened up a little bit. Ontario Christian played pretty well, but you saw they had just as much nerves. We just tried to focus on what we can do. We know what they’re going to do.

“I just wanted to show them we can learn and do better. We played better, but we still have some learning to do. We come back and play Tuesday, so we’ll see what happens.”

Markovska led all players with 25 kills. Hollins had 17 and Jayde Shelton 13.

As he assessed everything that happened on Saturday and what the Wildcats have accomplished the last two seasons, Kaas had a final message to deliver.

“My hope is that the world embraces volleyball just a little bit more,” he said. “If you saw that game, it was enjoyable. I hope any sports fan would see that it was an enjoyable game.

“I wish our school would embrace it more … I wish every school would embrace it more. It’s fun.”

Jayde Shelton drives a shot pas Ontario Christian's Peyton Tazelaar and a teammate.

Paloma Valley coach Stephen Kaas and principal Jennifer Thomasian pose with the CIF runner-up plaque.