Within the Strom Gymnasium on the campus of Hilmar High School, tens of dozens of green pennants representing league championships won by a number of their athletics teams line the wall behind the home side bleachers. Hanging above the main entrance to the venue are 23 blue pennants, representing section titles won. On top of those are two yellow banners, each earned by the 2018 football and volleyball teams for winning Northern California championships and representing the region in state title games.
“Winning NorCal is our motivation,” Stella Pires, who is a setter on this year’s roster, said on Saturday night. “We're looking at those flags up there, we only have two NorCal flags up there, and we want a third one.”
Her remarks came just minutes after the No. 2 Yellowjackets won their California Interscholastic Federation Division 4 State Volleyball Championship semifinal match in four sets (22-25, 25-22, 25-23, 25-17) against No. 3 Fresno Christian, who claimed the Central Section’s D-4 crown nearly two weeks ago. The Eagles were the third straight section champion that the Yellowjackets have knocked off in this year’s tournament.
Hilmar had previously defeated the Central Section’s Division 3 victor, Bullard of Fresno, in the quarterfinal round and the Northern Section’s Division 4 winners University Prep of Redding in the tourney opener.
Now, the Lady ‘Jackets (29-9) are on the verge of adding the coveted third yellow banner in their gym. On Tuesday, once again on their home court, they will take on No. 4 St. Patrick-St. Vincent of Vallejo, who also have a 29-9 overall record this year, in the regional final. The Bruins earned their ticket to the title game (and gave Hilmar their fourth home game of the tournament) by pulling off an improbable upset of top-seeded Liberty Ranch of Galt (35-6) in five sets.
“We’re so close to getting that third banner,” said Hilmar middle hitter Reese Ahlem. “It’s within reach, and we’re all so motivated to get it.”
The junior’s energy was infectious Saturday night. She contributed five points in the opening set with three kills and two blocks. Although they narrowly dropped the frame just like in their last contest against Bullard, she made sure that her teammates kept their energy up. It was a stark contrast to the quiet huddle that stood on the court after they blew two late leads in the first set of the aforementioned quarterfinal game.
After falling behind 10-4 to start the second set, Ahlem again gave her teammates an earful of encouraging messages during a timeout, which helped catapult an eventual comeback.
Pires, senior libero Teygan Horstmeier and senior defender Sophie Stivers combined to keep multiple sequences alive and set up kills for the hitting duo of senior Finley Rosa and junior Alyssa Colston, who strung together consecutive kills. The scores were followed by a pair of aces from Horstmeier to make it 10-8. An Eagles team on their heels proceeded to hit multiple shots out of bounds to give the ‘Jackets a 12-11 lead. And the home team never looked back. Rosa and Colston combined for another five kills in the set before Pires finished things off with a thundering block.
“My message to my teammates was what it always is, to just scream as loud as you can, no matter what happens,” Ahlem said. “Even if the other team gives us an easy point or if things don’t go our way. I tell them to be happy over every single thing that happens, because a point goes a lot (further) more than you think.
“My mindset is to always work harder than the last play. I just tell myself, ‘Whatever you did the last play, double it and always work harder than the last.'”
The third set proved that momentum had completely shifted to Hilmar. With the frame knotted at 19, five of Hilmar’s last seven points were hits out-of-bounds from Fresno Christian hitters. In the fourth, with the set tied at 12, Pires recorded a block to give her team the lead for good. They finished the match on a 9-4 run. They were led by six kills and an ace by Rosa in the set. She led the team with 19 kills on the night, while Colston was second with 11. Ahlem stuffed the stat sheets with five kills and three blocks.
The winner of Tuesday’s regional final, which gets underway at 6 p.m., will travel nearly six hours south to Santiago Canyon College in the city of Orange, just outside of Anaheim, for Saturday’s D-4 state championship game. They’d face the winner of Tuesday’s SoCal title match between Walnut and South Pasadena.
A victory for Hilmar would mark their second trip to the state finale in the program’s history. They fell just short of the D-4 crown in 2018, losing to San Luis Obispo in five sets.
