‘We wanted to do this for all the teams who came before us.’ Knights bring home title.
As the ball touched the floor, the Stone Ridge Christian volleyball team embraced into a bundle of hugs. Finally, the Knights could celebrate. Finally, the blue section banner was coming home.
Sophomore Sasha Stillman delivered the finishing block that Forest Lake Christian couldn’t get back over the net to give the Knights a 25-17 25-18, 22-25, 26-24 victory in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division VI championship game at Ripon High on Saturday afternoon.
“We were all so nervous and then we were all so happy,” said SRC sophomore Maartje Vander Dussen, who had a monster match with 24 kills and 30 digs. “We just gave each other hugs. We’re so thankful for each other. We’re so thankful for what God has blessed us with.”
The Knights had contributions across the floor with Sadi Tucker and Sasha Stillman adding nine kills each. Broke Wareham finished with 17 assists and 21 digs. Libero Laura Hooker also finished with 31 digs.
This was Stone Ridge Christian’s fifth appearance in the section finals in six years. The first four times the Knights settled for the runner-up trophy, losing to Turlock Christian twice and Woodland Christian twice.
“This was a lot of hard work,” said Knights coach Ken Shaw as he was holding the blue section banner. “The girls played well. I’m going to enjoy this. We’re going to enjoy this all weekend.”
After cruising through the first two games, Stone Ridge Christian (28-6) found themselves in a battle the final two games as they tried to close out the match.
The second-seeded Falcons (24-6) showed how they came back from a 2-0 deficit to defeat No. 3 seed Big Valley Christian in the semifinals. Taylor Dunn and Lily Sween started knocking down big kills and the Forest Lake Christian back row started picking up everything SRC threw at them.
“We knew they could play at a higher level,” Shaw said. “We saw that when they won their semifinal game. It wasn’t a let up as much as they were firing on all cylinders.”
The fourth game was back and forth late, with the game tied at 19-19, 20-20, 21-21 and 22-22 late before the Falcons won the final four points to force a fourth game.
The fourth game was tight late as well after the Falcons used a 3-0 run to pull even at 20-all. Stone Ridge used two kills from middle blocker Alyssa Vander woude and an ace by Vander Dussen to take a 24-22 lead.
However, Forest Lake answered to tie the game at 24-24.
“We did get nervous,” said SRC sophomore Sydney Shaw, who turned in a strong all-around effort with 10 kills, 21 assists and 17 digs. “We wanted this. Our team wanted this so bad. We came together as a group and said we can do this in the fourth game. We wanted to do this for all the teams who came before us.”
Two points later, the Knights were celebrating and soon taking pictures with the blue banner.
“Our team worked so hard to get this,” Sydney Shaw said. “We’ve been here four times before. The fifth time this team came together. It’s such an honor.”