Girls’ Volleyball: Sage Hill sweeps, advances
MORENO VALLEY — The road to a fourth straight CIF Southern Section girls’ volleyball finals appearance for Sage Hill School will involve more traveling.
Sage Hill made the Division 3AA second-round trip to Moreno Valley on Thursday, and it left the Valley View gym in a hurry. The top-seeded team spent about an hour competing on the court, sweeping Valley View, 25-11, 25-11, 25-13.
Before the opening serve, Lightning Coach Dan Thomassen learned whom his team would face in the quarterfinals had it beat Valley View. Lake Arrowhead Rim of the World’s second-round match against Whittier La Serna started at 6 p.m., an hour before Sage Hill played.
While his players warmed up, Thomassen found out that Rim of the World was on its way to sweeping La Serna. Rim of the World earned the right to play host to Saturday’s second-round match because it won a coin flip on Wednesday.
“In an ideal world, we get a big home match [in this round of the playoffs],” Thomassen said. “It looks like we got to win one more and maybe [we] get a home [playoff] match after that. We know [Rim of the World is] going to be tough. They got a great coach [in Linda Pattison], and they’ve been getting better and better throughout the year.”
The meeting between Sage Hill (20-3) and Rim of the World (18-9) will be a first, unless you count a scrimmage two years ago in August. Instead of going to Hawaii before that season, Thomassen took Sage Hill to the school located in the San Bernardino Mountains.
No one kept score back then, but officials will on Saturday.
Thomassen isn’t concerned with his team playing in high altitude. Three of his star players, outside hitters Kekai Whitford and Halland McKenna and setter Maddy Abbott, played in that contest two years ago at Rim of the World. The three were sophomores, and two years later as seniors, they are looking to lead Sage Hill to an unprecedented fourth consecutive section championship match.
The trio led the way against Valley View (19-5), extending Sage Hill’s winning streak to 15 matches. McKenna served well at the start, collecting a couple of service aces. The Stanford-bound player finished with 11 kills, 11 digs and five aces, while Whitford, bound for Loyola Marymount, totaled nine kills, 14 digs and three aces, and Abbott, bound for Michigan, amassed 34 assists, two kills and one ace.
Sage Hill, which also got five kills and six blocks from Sophia Mossman, is two wins away from playing for another section banner. The program claimed the Division 3A crown last year and the Division 4AA championship three years ago. The only setback during its past three trips to the section finals came two years ago against St. Margaret’s in Division 3A.
Sage Hill and No. 3-seeded St. Margaret’s, Academy League rivals, are on a collision course to face each other for the section title next week.
“We’ve never played a final against someone not in our league,” said Thomassen, whose team squared off against Crean Lutheran last year and St. Margaret’s in 2012, ’11 and ‘05, giving Sage Hill a 3-1 record in section finals under Thomassen. “We don’t know what it’s like [to play someone else] for the championship.”