Prep volleyball: Misson Oak aiming for return to D-III final + updated section rankings

Coming close still burns Aubrey Cardoza and the Mission Oak High girls volleyball team.

The Hawks made their first trip to a Central Section championship last year, losing to Bakersfield Christian in four sets for the Division III title.

Cardoza and seven other members of last season’s team are back and sprinting toward another postseason run having won six straight heading into the final week of the regular season.

Seedings for the section’s five playoff divisions will be announced Oct. 31, with first-round matches set for Nov. 1. The finals are Nov. 12, and for the second straight season all five will be played at West Hills College-Lemoore.

“It’s adding to the fight,” Cardoza, a senior co-captain, said of the 20-25, 25-17, 25-14, 27-24 loss to Bakersfield Christian last November. “Being there and not being successful at Valley is really fueling our fire. We want to get back there, but this time we want to go out with a victory.”

Mission Oak (25-7) battled injury and illness in the middle of the season, when it suffered losses to Bakersfield Christian (25-19, 25-18) in the final of the Redwood Tournament and to Monache (25-20, 24-26, 25-23, 21-25, 15-11) in the first week of East Yosemite League play during a span of 12 days.

But The Bee’s Central Section No. 12-ranked Hawks appear to be healthy now and back on track, having avenged the loss to then No. 19-ranked Monache by sweeping the Marauders 25-13, 25-15, 25-14 on Oct. 18 to forge a tie atop the EYL standings.

“I feel like if we play like this, we’re unstoppable,” Mission Oak senior co-captain Alyssa Parkison said after the Monache match. “When we play as one, we can’t be beat.”

In addition to Cardoza and Parkison, Mission Oak returns Samantha Arellano, Rhegan Fernandez, Kelsey Brown, Christa Pilgrim, Jasmine Ramirez and Julie Wise from a team that went 27-7 last season and had a 22-20 lead in the fourth set of the final against Bakersfield Christian before letting it slip away.

And the Hawks have added a lefty-hitting sophomore to the attack this year in Hazel Martinez.

“We’re even stronger than last year,” Mission Oak coach Casey Norman said. “It’s just the mind-set of getting it going, and going full throttle the entire way.”

Bakersfield Christian (29-1) appears to be a lock for the top-seed in Division III and a strong contender to return to the final. The South Sequoia League-leading and No. 4-ranked Eagles have won 20 straight since their only loss of the season, a 20-25, 28-26, 15-9 setback against No. 1 Clovis.

In addition to their match against Bakersfield Christian, the Hawks have prepped for a return trip to the final with a schedule that’s included wins over Division I Clovis North and D-II powers Exeter and Redwood.

“We definitely want it this year,” Parkison said. “And I feel like we have it in us.”

Rankings – Despite Central’s 25-22, 20-25, 25-18, 22-25, 15-11 victory over Clovis on Oct. 20, the Cougars remain No. 1 in The Bee’s section rankings based on overall body of work.

The Tri-River Athletic Conference co-leading Cougars (33-7, 6-2) have only two losses to section opposition, both against Central. The Grizzlies (30-10, 5-3) have lost five times to section opposition, including an early-season match against Clovis.

These rankings, which had Clovis and Central as Nos. 1-2 to open the season, see the top teams in the TRAC as a slight tick above their counterparts from the Southwest Yosemite League, where Liberty-Bakersfield leads at 7-1 with a 20-7 record overall.

Schools from the TRAC are 14-5 against those from the SWYL this season, though Liberty is 3-0 with two wins over Clovis North and one against Clovis West.

Streak ends – Behind 11 kills from Olivia Harden and eight from Corinne Acosta, No. 14 Exeter ended unranked Central Valley Christian’s league winning streak at 82 matches with a 25-18, 25-20, 25-18 victory Oct. 18 in Visalia.

The Cavaliers surprisingly kept the streak alive by rallying to beat the Monarchs 18-25, 25-27, 26-24, 25-23, 15-13 on their home court during the first round of Central Sequoia League play Sept. 29.

The streak began Sept. 22, 2009, with a 25-16, 25-11, 25-4 sweep of Coalinga and spanned three coaches: Amanda Oliver, Meghan Warkentin and Sarah Oskam.

This story was originally published October 24, 2016 at 5:12 PM with the headline "Prep volleyball: Misson Oak aiming for return to D-III final + updated section rankings."