ORANGE — When the Capistrano Valley Christian girls volleyball team qualified for the CIF-SS Division 6 playoffs with a record well under .500, a long postseason run appeared highly unlikely.
But the Eagles advanced to the semifinal round and earned a berth in the CIF Southern California Division IV Regional.
Capistrano Valley Christian then won four regional playoff games to reach Saturday’s CIF State final against Immanuel at Santiago Canyon College.
But the remarkable run finally ended, as Immanuel swept Capistrano Valley Christian, 25-22, 25-13, 25-22.
“We never gave up,” Eagles outside hitter Hope Van Rensselear said. “No matter how many losses we had, we still believed that we could grow so much as a team. And we’re here. And we just did what the coaches asked and it was a whole new team once we came in. So, we just gradually and then suddenly figured it out.”
The match started out promisingly for Capistrano Valley Christian (14-22-1) when McKenzie Meserve opened the first set serving three consecutive aces.
But Immanuel (27-16) quickly caught up and went on an 8-1 run to take an 8-4 lead.
Capistrano Valley Christian stayed within range but trailed for the remainder of the set as Immanuel was able to get through most of Capistrano Valley Christian’s blocks.
Immanuel led, 24-19, when a kill from Van Rensselear, a kill on a dump shot from Kaia Pelkey and a block from Katelyn Metz got Capistrano Valley Christian to within two points.
Capistrano Valley Christian served out of bounds, giving the winning point to Immanuel.
Immanuel opened the second set on a 10-2 run and never looked back.
Capistrano Valley kept the score close throughout the third set and were within a point at 23-22 after a block from Van Rensselear.
But Imanuel scored on a kill and a block to win the set and the match.
“We tell our girls to live in the ‘and,’” Capistrano Valley Christian coach Kelle Bond said. “We can be disappointed and ecstatic. We can be so grateful, and we can grieve. And to live together in the and is what we’ve been doing since July. So, it hurts. It’s disappointing. It wasn’t the outcome we wanted. And we are one of a handful teams here. And we had a losing record, and we are here.”
Williams and Van Rensselear led Capistrano Valley Christian with 11 and six kills, respectively, and Meserve finished with four aces and a block.
Bond said a variety of factors contributed to her team’s under-.500 record during the regular season.
“We had only a handful of returners and a lot of new players,” the coach said. “And so, it just took us time to figure each other out, figure the system out, figure out how we were going to do that together. It just happened to peak at that point.”