The Ripon Christian Knights dropped the first set of the match before coming back to beat Ripon 23-25, 25-11, 25-21, 25-12 and remain undefeated in Trans Valley League action Wednesday night.
“We are a really, really good team that sometimes plays badly, and you saw that in the first set,” Knights coach Kevin Tameling said.
The Knights (4-0, 14-5 overall) struggled to get going, surrendering five points on service errors in the first set. Miscues combined with strong service and outside hitting from the Ripon standout Drake Krippene (12 kills) helped the Indians (3-1, 12-5) edge out a tightly contested opener, 25-23.
“I was really happy to see us come out and get that first set,” Indians coach Tara Maruyama said. “We were able to get Drake going and neutralize their outside hitters with some good plays at the net, and we’ll take that away as a positive moving forward.”
The second set of the match saw the Knights get back to their bread and butter. Junior outside hitter Mason Tameling recorded six of his 22 kills in the set, while serving on 10 of the 25 points scored to cruise to a 25-11 win to even the match 1-1.
“We know going into any Ripon vs. Ripon Christian match, it’s going to be a battle,” Mason Tameling said. “Obviously, we didn’t want to drop that first set, but we had a good talk going into the second and found our rhythm from there.”
The third set was as tightly contested as the first. Ripon capitalized on more service errors from the Knights, and got four kills from junior outside hitter Armando Ayon, which helped them force a 20-20 tie. Kills from freshman right-side hitter Grant Wentworth and key blocks at the net from Isaiah Vander Woude propelled the nights to a strong finish 25-21 to go up 2-1 in the match.
“Isaiah sets up a big block for us,” Kevin Tameling said. “He’s a big dude up there and really takes pride in shutting down outside hitters. Tonight was a huge bounce-back spot for him after a tough last game of our tournament, so I was really happy to see how well he played.”
Vander Woude ended the match with four blocks, while middle hitter Darren Van Groningen contributed three.
The Ripon Christian offensive attack was set up all night by junior setter Daniel Lambdin, who recorded 37 assists in the match, nine of which came in the fourth set that saw the Knights pull away from a 10-10 tie to take the set 25-12, securing the victory and a solo lead in the TVL for Ripon Christian.
“The progress that Daniel has made coming into a new position in the last four weeks has been incredible,” Kevin Tameling said. “He got the ball to our outside hitters, but he also got the ball to our middles tonight and helped us run what I thought was a very dynamic offense all night long.”
For Ripon, their first TVL loss represents an opportunity to correct mistakes and improve as the league schedule resumes next week.
“We’re going to spend the next couple days and tournament games working on our blocking at the net,” Maruyama said. “Our movement could be better, our communication could be better, if we pair those things with what we did well in the first set tonight I feel really good about where we are moving forward.”
Ripon will pick back up TVL action next Wednesday at Escalon, while Ripon Christian will look to stay unbeaten in league play Friday at TVL newcomer Big Valley Christian.
