Volleyball: Cerritos reaches state tournament for first time in 30 years

Falcons celebrate after qualifying for the 3C2A State Championships
Falcons celebrate after qualifying for the 3C2A State Championships

With an opportunity to qualify for the state tournament for the first time since 1994, the Cerritos College volleyball team swept past visiting San Bernardino Valley College in straight sets on Saturday night. Seeded #6, the Falcons (20-3) recorded a 25-15, 25-17, 25-11 win over the #14-seeded Wolverines (19-8). Cerritos will play their quarterfinal match at Mt. San Antonio College on Friday at 10:00 a.m. against Fresno City College, who's the top-seeded team from Northern California. A Cerritos team has not faced a Fresno City team since August 24, 2004 when the Rams posted a 32-20 win at the Cuesta Pool Play.

"The fact that this group gets to go to state is so special", said head coach Kari Hemmerling. "It's been 30 years, which proves the point that getting here is really really hard to do. There are so many talented teams, it's been such a blast coaching this squad. We made team goals in August and making the state tournament was one of them. But we're not done yet!"

In taking on San Bernardino Valley for the second time this season, the Falcons looked to shut down their 1-2 sister tandem of Lola and Mana Mamea, who combined for 41 kills in their win over Moorpark College. Even though the two combined for 26 kills against the Falcons, they came at times when Cerritos had already opened up large leads.

Using more depth and a spectacular defensive performance, Cerritos opened up a quick 7-2 lead in the first set and then turned a 12-7 lead into a 19-8 advantage, thanks in part to three Wolverine attack errors, couple with a pair of kills from sophomore Monserrat Rodriguez (Gahr HS/Long Beach City College), as well as sophomores Sydney May (Los Alamitos HS/UC Santa Cruz) and Jaqueline Torres (Sierra Vista HS/Rio Hondo College). Sophomore Jasmine Soto-Castro (Schurr HS) slammed home the final point for a quick 25-15 win in the first set.

An early 4-0 lead by San Bernardino Valley in the second set was their second largest lead of the night. Down, 8-3, the Falcons scored nine consecutive points, with four of those points coming on service aces from May. Cerritos continued to pull away from the Wolverines and closed off the set with the final three points, including a solo block from Sophomore Lillianna Peterson (California HS).

With their momentum at their highest, the Falcons received two more aces from May that helped turn a 6-4 lead into an 11-4 advantage. May added a kill, followed by the 11th ace of the night, this coming from sophomore Leeya Rubio (Schurr HS) to swell the lead to 16-8. Rodriguez also got in on the service aces, as she delivered two in a row, while the Falcons relied on their balanced attack the entire match.

"I think the team played a pretty clean match," added Hemmerling. There were three things I asked the team to do against SBVC and we did them all well. Serve tough in the seams, have two blockers up on #3 & #9 (the Mamea sisters), and be ready for the setter dump. We excited at a high level and it was fun to watch."

May led the way with 11 kills to go along with 15 assists, seven service aces and a pair of block assists, with Rodriguez slamming home 10 kills with no errors, eight digs and three aces. Soto-Castro contributed nine kills and six digs, while Peterson accounted for four kills and five digs. Leading the back row was sophomore Priscilla Castillo (Schurr HS) with her 18 digs, while Rubio finished with 18 assists and seven digs in the win.

Photos by Daryl Peterson