Forest Lake Christian advances to fourth consecutive section volleyball final

One word can describe Forest Lake Christian's girls volleyball squad: dominant. The Falcons went 16-0 in Central Valley California League play without dropping a set. The last time the Falcons dropped a set was back on Sept. 24 in a 2-0 loss to Daly City-Westmoor, a Division III program in the Central Coast Section. "I think a lot of our success has to do with being a small school," said Forest Lake coach Emily O'Neill, a former captain of the Falcons herself. "These girls not only go to first period, second period, third period together, but they're with each other every aspect of the day, and that builds a kind of community that other schools might struggle with just having so many people." That small-school community was on full display Tuesday night, as the top-seeded Falcons beat No. 5 Sacramento Waldorf 3-0 (25-16, 25-20, 25-15) to punch their ticket to a fourth consecutive Sac-Joaquin Section Division VI championship match. The sweep did not come easy. The Waves flustered Forest Lake early with long rallies and stout defense, leading 11-10 in the first set. The tide turned after a timeout by O'Neill to allow her players to gather themselves. "We made a change to counter what they were throwing at us," O'Neill said. "The biggest thing I told them was that they shifted their back row from their libero being middle back to right back. So we had to make sure our offense was corrected to attack that." The adjustment worked, as the Falcons went on an 11-2 run coming out of the timeout to take control of the set and match. "When we fell behind, I think that we knew that we were giving it away and that we needed to work as a team more and keep it together," said junior libero Savannah Williams, who had three aces in the match. "We've seen them in league and they came in with a strong urge to beat us, but we were able to hold it out." "You could tell they came out hungry to win this one and they jumped on us early," said Falcon captain and outside hitter Sadie Whaley. Whaley's 14 kills led the Falcons, as they took a back-and-forth second set before dominating the third. Second to Whaley's 14 was her counterpart as captain and outside hitter, Mariah Rua. Rua's best performance was not at the net. It was behind the microphone, as she performed the national anthem. Forest Lake (26-4) will face No. 2 Sacramento Country Day (19-4) in Saturday's championship match at 1 p.m. at Natomas High School. The Falcons and Cavaliers met in August with Forest Lake claiming a 3-0 win. The section title match has been Forest Lake's Achilles' heel historically, as the Falcons have won just once (1998) in 12 appearances. But those teams are not this one, and O'Neill feels her team is ready to raise a blue banner for the first time in 24 years. "I think we're going to do really well in Saturday's match," O'Nell said. "The girls are very fired up. They're happy to keep playing; they're in it to win it. I'm excited and I think it will be a great match." Perhaps nobody on the team would cherish a section championship more than Whaley, who was a member of the 2019 and 2021 runner-up squads. "I've been to a couple section championships and we didn't come out on top," Whaley said. "So I really just want to take this one, my last one, in my senior year and just keep this team going."