Oaks Christian girls volleyball teams takes down Chino Hills in Division 3 quarterfinal match

CHINO HILLS — The second set was perhaps as bad as the Oaks Christian girls volleyball team could play.

It got quite a bit better after that.

Third-seeded Oaks Christian shook off that second set to defeat Chino Hills 25-14, 8-25, 25-21, 25-21 in a CIF Southern Section Division 3 quarterfinal match Wednesday evening.

Oaks Christian (27-3) will host second-seeded Chaminade in the semifinals Saturday, a rematch of a Division 4 semifinal from last year, won by Oaks Christian in five sets.

Chino Hills, the CIF-SS Division 5 runner-up last year, has its season end with a remarkable 29-3 record.

“I don’t think we’ve been beaten that badly in a set this year,” Lions coach Julie Bennett said. “I’m so proud of the girls for coming back. And we were down in the third set. To be able to come back from that too, is really good teamwork.”

Each of the final two sets could have gone either way. The Huskies led by as many as five points early in the third set and Oaks Christian didn’t take the lead for good until 22-21.

Manaia Ogbechie, a 6-foot-2, sophomore middle hitter, scored the final two points of the set on a block and a kill.

Again in the fourth set, Chino Hills got off to a good start leading by as many as four points. But the Lions took the lead for good at 22-21 when an attempt by Chino Hills went long.

It was a stunning end for Chino Hills after a dominant second set.

“We made some adjustments and we made sure we served a little bit stronger (in the second set),” Chino Hills coach Joe Schnake said. “That also hurt us in the third set, as you saw we missed a good amount of serves. They (Lions) continued to play offensively strong.

“Every shot they had, they made sure to make an attack. We laid up on it a little bit. It’s a physical game. Whoever’s going to punch harder is going to win and Oaks Christian did that.”

Oaks Christian was led by 6-0 senior outside hitter Nicole Zake, who had 13 kills and Ogbechie who had 12.

“We passed better, more like the first set,” Bennett said of the final two sets.  “When we can pass, we can run our fast offense. It makes it easier for our attackers to have seams and holes.”

One adjustment Bennett made in the final two sets was to get sophomore middle hitter Brooke Gilmour into the lineup, giving the Lions an added defensive presence on an already formidable front line.

Senior Malina Thé led the way for Chino Hills with 14 kills, while junior Ashlee Sento added 13 kills and each hit at a .303 clip, which is above their season averages. Senior Eryn Lim had 24 assists and nine aces, at least four of which came in the second set. The Huskies scored 14 of their 25 points in the second set when Lim was serving.

The Huskies had lofty goals this season and accomplished some, but not all of them.

“We went up against some really strong teams,” Schnake said. “Best record in the school (history), the school had never come close to that. We made things happen. Obviously, we won region and state last year, but we couldn’t get Baseline (League) or CIF-Southern Section. We got one of the two (this year).”

Schnake felt the Huskies did not hold back any effort Wednesday..

“If they can show that strength in everything else they do, I’m just going to be a proud coach,” he said.