The Ripon Christian Knights clinched at least a share of the Trans Valley League Championship Monday night with a tightly contested three-set sweep 25-18, 25-19, 25-20 over the Ripon Indians.
The title is the fourth straight league championship for Ripon Christian (10-0, 21-9), which moved into the TVL after three straight titles in the Southern Athletic League.
“I am really proud of this group of guys,” Ripon Christian coach Kevin Tameling said. “It looks like we’re gelling at the right time, and we came in here against a really good team and put together what I thought was a complete performance to guarantee ourselves a share of the league title. You can’t ask for much more than that.”
Ripon (9-2, 23-7) came into the matchup with its rivals having won 10 straight matches despite battling injuries and showed flashes of the team that put that win streak together but was unable to piece together a full set.
“We’re really banged up,” Ripon coach Tara Maruyama said. “We have some guys out there giving their best despite not being 100%. Combine that with some mistakes we made due to nerves, and you are not going to beat a team this good.”
As they have been for much of the year, the Knights were led offensively by strong outside hitting from junior outside hitter Mason Tameling. Mason Tameling racked up eight of his team-high 21 kills in the first set that saw Ripon Christian score a 25-18 victory.
Mason Tameling and the rest of the hitters for Ripon Christian were set up early and often by junior setter Daniel Lambdin, who recorded 26 assists to five different hitters in the match.
“What makes this even sweeter is we came out here at the beginning of the season not knowing what our team would look like,” Lambdin said. “But I leaned on a really good group of hitters, and we came out here and did what we needed to do to get our school another league championship.”
What makes his role even more impressive is the fact that Lambdin is a natural outside hitter, who moved inside to set early in the season based on the needs of the team.
“Danny is a fantastic athlete,” Kevin Tameling said. “He gets to some balls other setters might not get to, and being a new setter, he does some things that other setters don’t do at all, and it’s proven to be incredibly effective for us. He’s put in the work both on and off the court to build rapport with our hitters, and it really shows from how he spreads the ball around to these guys.”
The second set saw Ripon jumped right out to an 8-2 through strong offensive play from outside hitter Drake Krippene, who recorded a team high 12 kills for the Indians. But Ripon Christian showed resolve through strong service from Mason Tameling and great defense at the net from Reagan Sauer and Grant Wentworth to take the second set 25-19.
Ripon took a lead late in the third set as well, going up 17-14 before coach Kevin Tameling called a timeout to stop the momentum. His team responded by ending the game on an 11-3 run to complete the sweep 25-20.
“In that moment we were beating ourselves,” Kevin Tameling said. “So, you call the timeout there to remind the guys hey this is a good team that is playing well but if you cut out some of the little mistakes that are controllable, we can finish this match out. Obviously, I was really happy to see the way they responded.”
Ripon Christian can clinch an outright league title in its next match Wednesday at Escalon. Meanwhile, Ripon will host Downey in a non-conference matchup Wednesday before wrapping up league play on Thursday at Big Valley Christian.
