Girls volleyball advances to CIF semifinals

If Ramona High girls volleyball team prevails in its CIF playoff against Bishop Wednesday night, the Bulldogs will travel to Cathedral Catholic High School for Saturday’s CIF Division I championship match.

The Bulldogs began the post-season with home wins Nov. 12 over Rancho Bernardo and Nov. 14 against Westview. Those results improved Ramona’s season record to 26-10.

The win over Rancho Bernardo took four games. Ramona was victorious in the 21-16 first set, the Broncos captured the second game by a 25-23 margin, and 25-14 and 25-23 Ramona victories concluded the match.

“Our offensive statistics were very solid, but we just were playing a little bit stiff on defense,” said coach Connie Halfaker. “When we had the opportunity offensively we were very effective.”

Natalie Seol led the Bulldogs with 13 kills against the Broncos, and she also led Ramona with four blocks. Sammy Shupe set for 37 assists. Karina Martinez had 10 digs and Sydney Hickle contributed nine digs. Seol and Katie Flinn each served for two aces apiece.

Ramona also needed four games to defeat Westview after losing the second set. The match began with a 25-18 Bulldogs victory, but the Wolverines prevailed by a 26-24 margin in the second game.

“We just made errors that we hadn’t been making,” Halfaker said. “We tightened that up and we played pretty darn clean.”

Ramona concluded the match with 26-18 and 25-18 triumphs.

“We just aggressively pushed forward and played well as a team,” Halfaker said. “Everything was very balanced and we played very well as a team.”

Shupe had a total of 49 assists against Westview. Seol had 21 kills and Martinez added 14 kills. “Offensively we were very aggressive and pretty successful,” Halfaker said.

Seol also had seven blocks. Hickle recorded 13 digs, and Flinn had two aces.

The CIF championship match will begin at 4 p.m. and will feature the Ramona-Bishop’s winner against the winner of the semifinal between La Costa Canyon and Eastlake.