ORANGE — When faced with early adversity during Saturday morning’s California Interscholastic Federation Division 4 state volleyball championship match, every call and rally seemed to be going in the direction of the Hilmar Yellowjackets. Helped by a series of serving errors, net violations and out-of-bounds hits from the Tigers, this year’s D-4 Northern California champions mounted a pair of four-point comebacks against South Pasadena to take each of the first two sets by 26-24 scores and a commanding 2-0 game lead.
But despite being one set away from claiming the first state crown in the history of their program, the Yellowjackets were unable to capitalize. Instead, the Tigers channeled the pressure of having their season on the verge of ending into three straight set wins, capturing the wooden state trophy in five sets (24-26, 24-26, 25-14, 25-16, 15-8).
As for Hilmar, it was another long trip to Orange County that ended in heartbreak. In their only other state final appearance in 2018, also at Sierra Canyon College, they similarly lost in five sets to San Luis Obispo. That match slipped away after the ‘Jackets had taken a 2-1 lead.
“It’s definitely a bummer,” said Hilmar head coach Patti Harris. “It’s obviously not the outcome we wanted, but these girls have nothing to be ashamed of. At the beginning of the year, we were not on the radar for anything. We fell just short of league and the sections, but they really started to peak as a team in the postseason, and to put a run like this together is phenomenal. I couldn’t be more proud of this team.”
Harris explained that after a pair of “incredible” sets from her team to start the game, their mistakes allowed all the momentum to shift towards the South Pasadena side of the court. “Momentum can swing in a minute,” she said, “and once you lose momentum, especially the way we did, it’s just so hard to get it back.”
Hilmar’s first set surge Saturday was powered by sophomore middle hitter Emily Barroso, who was responsible for two kills and two blocks. Three of those scores came after they faced a 24-22 deficit. After Barroso’s second smash, senior hitter Finley Rosa defiantly things with a kill of her own.
Barroso, who totaled eight kills by game’s end, pitched in another four in the second set. Complimenting her were junior hitters Alyssa Colston and Emma Gomes. Colston notched six of her game-high 16 kills in the frame. Meanwhile, Gomes began and ended her team’s scoring in the set with kills. Four of her five total kills came in the set. Her first was a strong shot towards the middle of the court, and the set-sealer was a shot just out of reach of a Tiger defender to put the Yellowjackets on the verge of a title.
From that point on, things were never really close, as the Tigers took advantage of Hilmar’s myriad of serving errors, long hits, rotation errors and failed block attempts to take the next three sets.
In the third frame, the Tigers took a commanding 9-3 lead, mostly by way of those Hilmar errors. Colston tried mounting another comeback with two kills and a block to make it 13-9, but there were too many carefully placed hits that the Yellowjackets were unable to handle cleanly. The fourth set was better contested for the first half of play before things again got out of hand, as the Tigers eventually built a 22-14 lead. In that set, the Yellowjackets gave up eight straight points by way of multiple violations, hits out of bounds and failed dig attempts. The fifth set saw the ‘Jackets commit four more violations as the Tigers punched in on seven kills.
“South Pasadena is a very good team,” Harris said. “They had a solid defense, and the girls kind of let up on the gas a little bit. You just can't do that, especially in these state games where these teams are all just great. We just couldn't get that momentum back in the third, and then it kind of rolled into the fourth and the fifth.”
The Yellowjackets were outscored 65-38 in the final three frames. The game marked just their 10th loss of the year. And despite not winning their final game, Hilmar’s 30-10 record marks one of the highest winning percentages (75%) in program history. The 2018 state runners-up had a 72.9% winning percentage after a 35-13 campaign.
“It's very difficult to get to the state games. It’s super hard, and this team did it, beating three section winners to get here,” Harris said. “I’d like the girls to focus, look at our season and know that they have accomplished so much.
“I told them to focus on our journey and what it took for us to get here. Getting to state is a feat in itself, and I don’t want that loss to cloud their success of their season. They get to hang another banner in our gym, and they’ll have this run, this experience with them forever.”
