In addition, the extra tall Wolves who run eight players in over 6-feet, had 22 blocks on the night.
"They're a really good team," San Ramon Valley coach Brian Fujinaga said. "We had to control what we could
control. I felt like if we could execute our offense with our collective
height and ability to hit the ball I didn't think there was going to be
a way for them to slow us down.
"It was a matter of controlling our side of the court."
Lucy Chertock helped San Ramon Valley win the CIF Division II volleyball title 3-1 on Saturday over Centennial. She had a match-high 19 kills in the victory at Santiago Canyon College. (Photo: Vien Lam)
The first set swung back and forth with neither team being able to separate. Centennial got two kills to take a 22-21 lead before errors by both teams on successive points gave the Golden Hawks a 23-22 lead. An
Ila Rose kill followed by one from
Brooke Towle gave Centennial the first set and a bit of momentum.
But it was short lived as SRV stormed out of the break to a 7-2 lead before going up 22-1 and finishing off the victory 25-12.
Fujinaga said taking a deep breath between sets helped his squad.
I told them we'd been here before where it took us a little longer
to settle in to our game plan," he said. "Let's collectively regain our momentum
and they did an excellent job of controlling the second set.
"That was the big difference, settling in and playing our game."
The third set played out like the first, a tight battle, but two kills by Chertock down the stretch was enough for the 2-1 lead.
In the fourth set, a deadly block combo of
Rachel Richardson and
Sophia Vella who pair of blockades late helped the Wovles get to championship point before a Centennial hitting error started the Wolves title dogpile.
"It was such a great experience," Fujinaga said.
