Stone Ridge volleyball’s runs lead to sweep of rival Turlock Christian

Ken Shaw was understandably concerned.

After back-to-back losses to Turlock Christian in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division VI title match, the coach had no doubt his Stone Ridge Christian volleyball team would be up for Monday night’s home tilt with the Eagles.

Still, with no practice between last Friday’s first conference loss to Big Valley Christian and Monday’s contest, there was little opportunity to correct mistakes. Turns out the Knights did a little self-correcting. Stone Ridge ran over Turlock Christian with big run after big run and cruised to a 25-21, 25-15, 25-12 sweep of the three-time reigning section champ.

“It’s definitely scary when you don’t have a practice between two huge conference games,” Shaw said. “We met at lunch and had a good talk. We went over our plan and came away feeling pretty good about it.

“After losing the last two section title games to them, this game had been marked on our calendars for a long time. The way things started, I thought it was going to be a back-and-forth, fight-for-every-point kind of night. I never imagined the big runs we would string together. You can’t coach for that, but you appreciate when it happens.”

Shaw and company had a few flashbacks to the slow start in last year’s title match as Turlock Christian (8-3, 4-1 Central California Athletic Alliance) opened with five straight points.

Aubriana Vander Woude helped calm things down. The junior outside hitter recorded two of her team-high 13 kills to help spark a 17-3 run and take a 17-8 lead.

Stone Ridge (7-2, 4-1) pushed that lead to 23-12 before the Eagles stormed back. Nicky Sanders (team-high nine kills) got the offense going, running off three straight kills. Turlock Christian scored eight consecutive points, pulling within 23-20, but Vander Woude finished the set with a kill and a tip.

“We came in knowing that Turlock Christian was going to be a tough match,” Vander Woude said. “I think we all wanted the chance to say we’d beaten them.

“We got down early, but we knew we had to dig deep and pull together. Winning the first set gave us a lot of confidence.”

The Knights never allowed Turlock Christian back into it, using two big runs in the second and third sets to pull off the sweep.

Stone Ridge clung to a 16-14 lead in the second set when Ellie Ann Vander Dussen (team-high 22 digs) stepped to the service line. Vander Dussen only recorded one ace, but some strong serves helped set up an 8-0 run that broke open the set for an eventual 25-15 win.

The Knights didn’t ease off the gas.

Despite a veteran roster with seven seniors, Turlock Christian seemed to get rattled at the end of the second set. Stone Ridge took full advantage, jumping out to a 9-1 lead in the third set. Justine De Jager led the charge, recording four of her 11 kills as the Knights left no doubt.

“This win will definitely help our confidence go back up,” De Jager said. “It’s pretty easy to tell when our offense is clicking. There’s a lot of smiles out there, a lot of energy.

“We played as a team tonight and were just more well-rounded than last week.”

This story was originally published October 12, 2015 at 11:05 PM with the headline "Stone Ridge volleyball’s runs lead to sweep of rival Turlock Christian."