Washington Union comeback carries Cinderella to NorCal volleyball championship

Washington Union High’s improbable girls volleyball season reached epic proportions Tuesday night.

The Panthers, a team without a single club player and a 5-foot-3 outside hitter, faced an 0-2 deficit against a taller, sharper Ripon team.

But then the gym got louder, Washington started playing with more confidence and the result was a Northern California Regional Division V championship and a ticket to Friday’s state final.

The scores were 17-25, 22-25, 28-26, 25-23, 16-14.

Ripon couldn’t have been intimidated by the plaque on the gym wall that listed the Panthers’ only two league volleyball titles, won in 1985 and ‘86. It’s believed that last year’s Central Section first-round win was the program’s first in the postseason.

But what the Panthers (36-8) lack in the past they make up for in pride, coach Allison Hetherington said.

“If you look at us, you wouldn’t consider us a volleyball team,” she said, referring to not only that lack of offseason club competition but also that 5-3 outside hitter, sophomore Tina Lo.

“We’re kinda that unlikely team. But when we play as a team we are unstoppable.”

Ripon (25-12) came in as the No. 4 seed but was tested against top competition including league rival and NorCal D-IV champion Hilmar. The Indians passed well and got solid play all night from front-liners Mia Van Lewen, Sydney Thomason and Alyssa Barrios.

But No. 3 seed Washington didn’t let it get to match point in the third set (winning on consecutive kills by senior Cece Lopez) then taking a lead at 17-16 in the fourth that it never gave up.

Ripon finally got to match point at 14-11 in the fifth before a service error allowed Washington senior Sydney Kuma to rotate to the front line. Kuma, a ferocious hitter, had a kill, the Panthers won a long rally, Ripon made an error and Kuma finished it with a spike that was blocked out of bounds.

Kuma said that being down 0-2 just meant “we had to prove we had more heart. We worked hard to get here.”

“We made our whole town proud,” said Kuma, who transferred to Washington after last volleyball season and is expected to sign a softball scholarship with Georgia at a school ceremony Wednesday (oh, and she’s a standout soccer player, too).

The Panthers next face El Camino Real-Woodland Hills (16-16), the SoCal top seed, in the state final Friday at 4 p.m. at Santiago Canyon College in Orange.

This story was originally published November 13, 2018 at 11:41 PM.