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For the first time since 2016, the Valley Christian High girls volleyball team clinched a share of the Olympic League title after sweeping Whittier Christian High 25-10, 25-12, 25-15 last Thursday night. It was the seventh straight sweep for the Defenders and 17th out of 24 matches this season. PHOTO BY LOREN KOPFF.
October 6, 2025
By Loren Kopff • @LorenKopff on X
The Olympic League has a new champion in girls volleyball and it’s not Village Christian High. For the first time since 2016 and only the third time in the 2000’s, Valley Christian High will enter the CIF-Southern Section playoffs as first place representatives of the league.
The Defenders swept Whittier Christian High 25-10, 25-12, 25-15 last Thursday on ‘Block Out Cancer’ night to clinch at least a share of the title, improving to 22-2 overall and 6-0 in the league. Heritage Christian High is in second place with a 4-2 mark and those two face each other on Thursday.
The irony to V.C. claiming the program’s 15th league championship and school’s 278th league championship is that Village Christian fell to the Defenders in four sets on Oct. 13, 2016 before reeling off 58 consecutive league matches until the Defenders swept the Crusaders on Sept. 11 in the league opener. During that time, Valley Christian had gone 39-17 in league action, finishing in second place the last five seasons and six out of the last seven.
In fact, just to make sure her team wouldn’t be looking ahead or play nervous because of what was on the line, V.C. head coach Stacy Brannon did not tell her team that it had won at least a share of the league title until the match was over. Even when she made that statement, the players didn’t comprehend it at first.
“I think we saw it coming last year when we saw the potential of what was happening, and then when the season started off so well for us, I think we would have been upset at anything short of this,” said Brannon. “This was our main goal; all the girls who set goals at the beginning of the year said league champs. They’ve done it; they’ve worked hard, and our goal now is to finish league [without losing a set].”
“It’s just been so fun playing with so many different girls [the past four seasons] and then after having a team that’s been together for probably at least two years,” said V.C. senior outside hitter Aubrey Ericks. “It’s been really fun to see how we’ve grown together and just how we’ve risen to a high level to become league champs and beat our rivals, Village. That was definitely a highlight.”
After Whittier Christian scored the first point of the match, junior outside hitter Jenna Van Kampen had a kill, then served four straight points as the Defenders never looked back. An ace by senior setter Kaylie Prins put the hosts up 14-7 at the end of the first rotation, then after the Heralds got a point, Van Kampen reeled off five straight points including an ace to put the set away.
With the score tied 2-2 in the second set, senior libero Devyn Masi reeled off four straight points, the last three coming on aces and again, the Defenders never looked back. Masi would put together another scoring spree in the second rotation, serving four straight points with the last coming when the opposition couldn’t get the ball over the net. Junior outside hitter Tessa Dobmeier ended the set with three straight aces.
But it wasn’t all about the serving as nine of the 13 players on V.C.’s squad had at least a kill through the first two sets, including six players combining for 14 kills in the first set, led by Dobmeier’s half a dozen and three from junior right side hitter Brooklyn Warner.
“Our team is super deep,” said Ericks. “One thing I love in practice is we always have our starters on the other side,” said Ericks. “But, when our substation side comes out and wins games in practice, it’s really just helping both sides get better.”
Of the six seniors on the team, Ericks is the only one to have played her entire high school career on the varsity squad.
“Tonight, she hit phenomenal,” said Brannon. “As one of our captains, she’s the glue of our team. In of our [previous] five-set matches, it was her encouragement and cheering and motivating the team members to keep it going that way. And then on her skill alone, it helps us win, but then her positivity is great. We’re going to miss her next year.”
The third set would get a little too close for comfort considering in the first four matches of league competition, the Defenders allowed nine points each time in the third set. After getting the first three points on kills from senior middle hitter Jordan Weston and Van Kampen, and an ace from Van Kampen, Whittier Christian chipped away the next several minutes and took its biggest lead of the match at 9-7 on an ace from Mia Fielder.
However, the second kill of the night from senior opposite hitter Aniyah Peoples allowed Prins to serve four straight points to give the Defenders the lead for good. For added measure, Van Kampen began the second rotation with seven straight points to make it 20-11.
“I think we have a lot going on this week,” said Brannon, referring to finishing off the season sweep of Village Christian on the road two days prior. “Our main goal was Village, not to take anything away from Whittier, but we were hoping we would beat them in three. We had the Block Out Cancer night in our heads and one of our parents is taking the whole team to Disneyland tomorrow. So, our focus may not have been where it normally would be. Tonight, I think we made some errors that we don’t normally make; we missed a ton of serves which isn’t normal.”
Dobmeier led everyone with 15 kills followed by Weston (nine), Van Kampen (seven), Warner (five) and Ericks (four).
“I would say all our girls individually just worked super hard in offseason, in club and in preseason,” said Ericks. “We lift each other up a lot; we’re very encouraging to each other, and it’s just such a team effort in practice just helping each other get better.”
“Our team is so deep; that’s what I say to them because it’s frustrating when you don’t get to play as much,” said Brannon. “But our practices challenge us more than some of our matches. That’s where we get better, in practice. Like, we don’t need tough competition to get better. We have those girls; they’re all getting blocks and hitting against our other team. Our defense on the other side is always just as tough. So, having a deep team is great. It’s fun on games like this when we can get everyone in. But definitely we keep everyone to a high standard in practice because everyone is so good.”
This was the 17th overall sweep for the Defenders who have not lost a set since losing to Los Alamitos High 26-24, 25-14 in the finals of the Whittier Tournament on Sept. 6. That loss snapped a 15-match winning streak after losing to Etiwanda High in the season opener.
“We love to get out of here quick, but we also love to just put it them,” said Ericks. “This year, out theme has kind of been not playing down to the other team’s level and keeping our level of play high. So, that was definitely our focus that’s helped us win in three a lot.”
“Winning in three is very important,” said Brannon. “We’ve gone five three times, and it’s been great because last year, we went five in our CIF game [against Thousand Oaks]; it was our only time. So we had no practice in five-set matches. Winning in three is fun; that’s what we want to do most of the time.”
After the match with Heritage Christian, the Defenders, who are projected to get a high seed in Division 2, will wrap up the regular season on Oct. 14 against Maranatha High.
