After nearly a decade in the dark, the Foothills Christian boys volleyball program has experienced some kind of rebirth.
The Knights captured last year’s San Diego Section Division V championship in a return to the playing court. On Saturday, Foothills made it twofor- two by winning the Division IV championship at Southwestern College.
Next stop was Tuesday’s Southern California regional playoff quarterfinals.
The accolades just don’t stop.
“We came out to win again,” Foothills head coach Roxanne Hamilton stated flatly. “Our goal was to win league and get to the (CIF) championship game and win it. We wanted both. We learned last year about taking care of business.”
The Knights indeed took care of business, but they were pushed to the brink by a talented and hungry Cambridge School squad that had another upset on its mind after dispatching secondseeded Escondido Charter in the semifinals.
Foothills won by final scores of 29-27, 25-22, 26-24 despite trailing in each set. The Knights rallied from a 24-26 deficit in the first set and trailed by as much as five points before capturing the third set.
The Knights obviously drew on their playoff experience from last season to claim their second consecutive CIF championship.
“We did the same kind of thing last year by trusting each other,” Hamilton said in reference to her team out-lasting Escondido Charter in a grueling five-set finals match-up last season. “They didn’t quit.”
The Knights were well poised to repeat despite moving up a division level. “We lost three seniors and got in a couple new kids, one transfer and pulled in a few freshmen,” the Foothills coach said.
It proved to be another winning combination after the Knights (26-5) secured an undefeated 10-0 Pacific League championship and No. 1 seed for this year’s divisional playoffs.
Foothills received a bye in the first round of the playoffs before sweeping eighth-seeded Calexico (20-10) in the quarterfinals on May 4. The Knights had to rely on all their experience in out-lasting fourth-seeded Canyon Hills (21-11) in five sets, 25-21, 25-11, 23-25, 24-26, 15-4, in the semifinals on May 8.
The Cambridge School, which is located south of Mt. Carmel High School and west of Sabre Springs, eliminated 11th-seeded Montgomery in the quarterfinals and edged past second-seeded Escondido Charter in five sets in the semifinals.
Foothills recorded come-frombehind wins in all three sets. The Knights took an early 4-1 advantage in the first set and led, 6-3, before the Griffins (21-8) rallied to take leads of 25-24, 26-25 and 27-26 while attempting to notch a win. But the Pacific League champions, keyed by the powerful hitting of sophomore Hunter Hamilton, the coach’s younger of two sons on the team, rallied with the final three points to avert defeat.
Hunter Hamilton, who led all players on the court with 25 kills, proved a pivotal force to lean on with a kill to tie the game, 27-27, and a block to seal the victory.
The second set featured eight lead changes and was tied 13 times. The Griffins narrowed the score to 23-20 before Hunter unleashed a massive kill to push the Knights ahead by four points while eventually nailing down a three-point win.
The third set was definitely more challenging. Cambridge held the lead four times, holding advantage from 8-7 to 24- 23 before Foothills rallied from a late 24-all standoff with the final two points. The Griffins returned the final serve long outof- bounds to allow the Knights to spirit away the thrilling sweep.
The Griffins looked to extend the match after taking a 15-10 lead midway through. But the Knights out-scored their adversary 16-9 down the stretch.
“As soon as we got down by five points, I knew we could do this,” Hunter Hamilton explained “We do this in practice. I wasn’t worried.”
Six-foot-four senior Logan Hamilton recorded six kills and two blocks while junior middle blocker Caleb Garcia had four kills.
Five-foot-four junior libero Josiah Crenshaw had to be one of the most inspirational players on the court, especially with his ability to drift back and collect seemingly unhittable balls. The win belonged to everyone on the team.
“It took all year, hard work and determination,” junior opposite Joey Turk said. “I couldn’t have done it alone without help. It wasn’t a one-man job, for sure.”
Junior outside hitter Jonny Ho paced Cambridge with 17 kills and three service aces to share the hitting spotlight with Hunter Hamilton. Senior middle blocker Andrew Eppich added four kills, three blocks and one ace.
Only the Division V and Division V-AA section champions were not seeded into this year’s regional state playoffs.
As the Division IV champion, Foothills received the No. 4 seed in the Division 4 Southern California bracket, hosting fifthseeded Hamilton in Tuesday’s opening round.
Semifinals in the eight -team division draw were scheduled Thursday. The championship game is scheduled Saturday at 6 p.m. at the higher seed.
Arroyo Grande (19-12) received the top seed while Van Nuys Grant (31-8-2) was seeded second.
“It’s pretty exciting to keep going,” the Knights coach said. “The guys were excited to stay undefeated in the section playoffs and now we’ll see some new teams.”
In the seven division finals, the higher-seeded team came out victorious five times: Torrey Pines (Open Division), Mission Vista (Division II), High Tech High San Diego (Division III), Foothills Christian (Division IV) and Lincoln (Division V).
Grossmont Hills League champion Granite Hills (25-11) advanced as far as Division II quarterfinals while Grossmont Valley League champion El Capitan (18-16) received the No. 7 seed in the Division IV playoffs but was upset by 10thseeded La Jolla Country Day (11-14) in the opening round.
No. 9 El Cajon Valley (24- 12) advanced to the Division II quarterfinals with a five-set win over No. 8 La Jolla (20-17) in the first round while No. 7 Mountain Empire (9-12) advanced to the Division V-AA quarterfinals with a five-set win over 10th-seeded Holtville (6-8)
Great article.