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Friday, Nov. 20, 2009

Chowchilla volleyball beaten in final

VISALIA -- As sophomores, Alex Paredes, Brelle De Groot and Shelly Leyendekker were part of the supporting cast as Central Valley Christian High journeyed all the way to the CIF State Division V volleyball final.

Two years later, the senior trio is back in the state tournament, playing the lead role this time.

Paredes had a team-high 13 kills, De Groot added 10 kills and Leyendekker contributed 19 assists as CVC topped No. 3 Chowchilla 25-21, 25-23, 25-22 on Thursday for the Central Section Division IV championship and the automatic berth in the Southern California Regionals that comes with it.

CVC (30-3) will learn its first-round opponent about 5 p.m. Sunday when the State CIF announces the brackets for the regional playoffs.

"We are real excited," Paredes said. "We want it really bad."

CVC secured its 11th section title since 1996 -- and first since moving up to Division IV -- the hard way, by rallying from behind in each set, including erasing a seven-point deficit in the third game.

An ace by Chowchilla's Sammie Chapman put the Redskins ahead 10-3. But CVC slowly chipped away, eventually taking the lead at 20-19 on consecutive aces by Paredes. De Groot hammered home the final two points.

"Everyone just kept working really hard and kept fighting," De Groot said. "We were not going to give up. We were not going to let them have that game easy, even if we had to go to a fourth game."

Chowchilla (22-7) had a 15-13 lead in the first set, and was up 18-17 and later tied 22-22 in the second set but could pull neither out.

Elliana Diepersloot had 16 kills for the North Sequoia League co-champions.

"Our defense started slacking and not getting to our zones," Chowchilla co-coach Jessica DeJager said. "Defense is the No. 1 thing that fell apart. That, and not being overly aggressive on offense. We needed to swing away at times and didn't."