Bulldogs upset top-seeded Marin Catholic, advance to Nor-Cal semis

Folsom High's girls' volleyball team is a win away from playing for the Northern California Division I championship. While the semi-final game will be played on the road Saturday against Sierra Foothill League rival Rocklin, it's against a Thunder team that Folsom defeated the last time they met, Oct. 10, in five games. In fact, Folsom has beaten Rocklin two of the last three times they've met in five games. "No matter what happens, I know it will be a dog fight," Folsom coach Devin Elmore said. "We're going to give it everything we've got and so are they. All the girls know each other through club ball and no one is going to want to be on the losing side. I know they will have a great home crowd and I hope our crowd travels with us too. It's going to be a great match." To get to the match, Folsom, the No. 8 seed in the tournament, went on the road Thursday night and defeated the tournament's top-seed, Marin Catholic, in five sets, 22-25, 22-25, 25-19, 26-24 and 15-9. It was Folsom's second consecutive Nor-Cal match where they came back to win after losing the first two sets. "It's like they love digging themselves in a hole," Elmore said with a laugh. "This match was almost identical to our last one. We jumped out early, but made some untimely errors and they won the first set. Then in the second set, we just were sort of lifeless and made some weird errors and ended up losing the second set. "I told the girls, I don't need a super hero, I just need one girl to play one point better and we win the match. Well, I think they all listened because we won the third set nicely and pulled out a tough fourth set in a close one. "Then in the fifth set, up jumped out to 4-0 lead and sort of maintained that lead the rest of the way." It was the team's second straight improbably victory after losing the first two sets of the contest. "This one felt good," Elmore said. "It's a match no one outside of this group thought we could win, but not only did we think we could win, but we felt we were going to win. They didn't look too tight or nervous, even after being down 2-0."