Inexperience Hurts Calvary Chapel

Top-seeded Calvary Chapel’s inexperience opened the door to a comeback for Cerritos Valley Christian, but still, only two points separated the Eagles from their third Southern Section title in four years.

But third-seeded Valley Christian completed the rally, scoring 11 of the final 13 points in a thrilling 10-15, 4-15, 15-10, 15-10, 17-15 Southern Section Division IV-A girls’ volleyball final Saturday at Cypress College in front of a crowd of 1,200.

Middle blocker Stacy Rouwenhorst, who had 21 kills and four blocks, led the Crusaders to their first section title in the 2 1/2-hour match.

Valley Christian (16-2) also avenged two four-game, regular-season losses to Calvary Chapel (14-4) and rallied from a 13-6 deficit in Game 5.

“We definitely made it more exciting this time around,” Calvary Chapel Coach Jim Downey said. “We’ve been starting two freshmen and two sophomores from the beginning of the season.

“There were some key errors tonight. I think part of that is they’ve never been in that situation before.”

But it wasn’t for lack of effort.

Calvary Chapel showed some grit with T.J. Gause finishing with 12 kills and 20 digs in helping the Eagles fight off four match points before succumbing in Game 5.

Eagle sophomore Jill Overby led the way with 18 kills and seven blocks, freshman Kelly Overby had 17 kills and sophomore Amy Owens added 16.

That was the good news.

Calvary Chapel may have nightmares about losing, after being ahead 10-6 in Game 4, and 13-6 in Game 5.

Sarah Boogaard began serving with Valley Christian trailing, 13-6, in Game 5, then served for eight consecutive points.

Stacy Rouwenhorst and her sister, Jill, each had a block and a kill in the run that put Valley Christian ahead, 14-13.

But a block by Jill Overby and two Valley Christian errors gave Calvary Chapel a match point at 15-14, but Stacy Rouwenhorst blocked Gause for a sideout.

Eventually, two hitting errors and a passing error by Calvary Chapel gave Valley Christian its final three points and the celebration began.