LAKE FOREST — El Toro’s girls volleyball team is gaining all kinds of experience in the CIF Southern Section playoffs. Good experience, and bad experience.
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And they’re turning it all into a winning experience.
The Chargers keep winning, keep rising to the occasion when it matters, and keep marching toward a championship opportunity.
El Toro’s latest dance with destiny took place Wednesday when the Chargers swept fourth-seeded St. Anthony of Long Beach in three games, 25-23, 25-17, 25-22, Division 5 quarterfinals.
El Toro improved to 21-10 this season. The Saints dropped to 20-15-1.
The only thing standing between El Toro and a return to the finals for the first time since 2022 is Liberty of Winchester, which beat Canyon of Canyon Country in five games Wednesday. Liberty defeated top-seeded Marlborough of Los Angeles in the second round.
El Toro will play its semifinal match at Liberty on Saturday as it tries to match its championship-winning performance of 2021.
It was a well-rounded performance by El Toro, which featured more weapons than the Saints, whose bid for a third section title ended despite nice performances from Brianna Mbire and Brooke Jondle. Mbire had 10 kills and Jondle six.
Sophie Nigro had 40 assists for El Toro. Lindsay Keith had 15 kills and Elli Hirosumi had 11.
“Game 1 was critical,” El Toro coach Gus Culver said. “We didn’t get off to a great start, but got in a pretty good rhythm. That momentum carried over into the second set. Third set has always been critical to us, maybe we were a little over-confident.
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“Luckily, the girls responded well. Some of our role players came off the bench and got some crucial points. Ellie Tredwell came in, serving specialist Avery Ko did a great job.
“One of the keys to us is we have a balanced attack and when we pass the ball, you have to defend three hitters. This should give us some confidence moving forward, that we were able to win even though we started off not great from the service line, at times we were shaky on serve-receive, and we were still able to pull out a victory.”
The Chargers outlasted St. Anthony in Game 1 despite trailing 19-14. Hirosumi served four points in a row, Sophie Nigro had a block and a kill to go up 23-22, and Hirosumi’s kill was followed by Jessa Jarrett’s ace to close it out.
El Toro committed six service errors and allowed four aces by the Saints.
The second game was easier on the Chargers as they stretched a 7-5 lead to a 19-11 advantage. Keith’s hitting scored four of El Toro’s last five points.
Game 3 brought back memories of the second round. In that match, El Toro won the first two games, lost the second two, and fell behind in the pivotal fifth game, 9-1, before rallying to win, 16-14.
Against the Saints, El Toro fell behind, 11-6 and 16-11 before rallying.
Senior Liz Njoroge had a kill and a block to spark a comeback to within 16-15. Down 18-15, El Toro scored five in a row with Hirosumi beginning the run with a couple of kills. Tied at 20, Hirosumi’s big arm made it 21-20, Tedwell’s block made it 22-21, and then Sarah McCormick made it 23-22. Keith’s two kills closed it out.
“We’re drawing on team chemistry and having a good run,” said Liz Njoroge, who had four kills and a team-high six blocks. “It’s good that we face adversity because we get to see how we can fight out of that, and it makes us stronger as a team and helps us realize what we need to do when it doesn’t work. I think it helps when there’s some competition, which they definitely provided.”
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