SANTA ANA — The Foothill girls volleyball team spread out its attack among multiple players and was strong at the net and from the service line in a 25-18, 25-21, 25-20 victory over Aliso Niguel in the first round of the CIF-SS Division 3 playoffs on Wednesday at Foothill High School.
The Knights (24-10) will play host to South Pasadena in a second-round match Saturday.
South Pasadena defeated Campbell in five sets in the first round Wednesday,
The Knights combined for six aces at the service line and served fewer balls into the net or out of bounds than the Wolverines (10-19).
Foothill also combined for six blocks and slowed down several kill attempts by partially blocking balls at the net.
“I would say we did a good job in the blocking aspect,” Foothill coach Aaron Wolfe said. “We were tight and pretty competitive all the way, and I think the longer rallies favored us.”
Sophomore June Stringham led the Knights with 11 kills and seniors Juli Malasani and Peyton Harrison had seven and five kills, respectively.
“I think it was definitely a lot of nerves, and a lot of excitement being the first round of CIF,” Stringham said. “We definitely fought hard even though we won it in three, think it was definitely a difficult match that we pushed through.”
All three sets were competitive, but Foothill never fell behind by more than three points at any point during the match.
The Wolverines led 6-3 in the second set but then the Knights went on an 11-3 run, with Stringham and Malasani leading the surge.
Malasani had three kills and a block during the run and Stringham had a pair of kills.
“I think we’re really fortunate to be able to have really strong hitters in all three positions,” Malasani said. “And that’s very helpful in games because they never know who you’re going to go to. And no matter who we go to, we know we’re going to be set up in a good spot and we know we’re going to get a kill.”
The Wolverines stayed with the Knights during the early part of the third set.
Aliso Niguel led 9-8 before the Knights went on a 10-2 run to lead by eight.
The Wolverines then made three consecutive hitting errors, essentially putting the set out of reach.
Aliso Niguel’s Eliza Havranek served a pair of aces to make the set a bit closer, but Stringham scored the final kill to clinch the set and the match.
The Knights’ seniors are advancing past the first round of the Southern Section playoffs for the first time during their four years at Foothill.
“We knew it was on the line for us,” Harrison said. “We’re not finished. We took care of it, we did our jobs, and I’m just really proud of our team.”