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The Artesia High girls volleyball team made history by advancing to the CIF-Southern Section finals for the first time after sweeping Loma Linda Academy 25-7, 25-15, 25-23 last Saturday in the Division 8 semifinals. Artesia will host Schurr High on Saturday for the championship. PHOTO BY LOREN KOPFF .
By Loren Kopff
Sports Editor | Follow X
November 4, 2025
LOMA LINDA-The girls volleyball program that had been laughed at and ridiculed at for over two and a half decades because of the number of futile seasons can now do the laughing all the way to the CIF-Southern Section Division 8 finals. For the first time in school history, Artesia High will be playing for a girls volleyball title after the Pioneers swept Loma Linda Academy 25-7, 25-15, 25-23 last Saturday night.
Artesia, the second-ranked team in the division which improved to 14-10, will host Schurr High on Saturday night. The Spartans (15-19) outlasted top-ranked Foothill Tech in five sets last Saturday in the other semifinal match.
The Pioneers are currently on a season-high four-match winning streak after going through the season winning three straight matches twice and going on a two-match winning streak once. But the red and black never lost more than two straight matches at any time, and in the regular season, the Pioneers were never more than two wins above .500 nor two losses below .500, making this somewhat of a roller coaster season.
“I can’t even compare the roller coaster with the ones at Six Flags because it’s totally different,” said Artesia first-year head coach Francisco Serrano. “It’s a whole new level of roller coasters, emotionally, physically, everything. We’ve seen the changes significantly from when we started to now. That’s the roller coaster we’re talking about; they go down, but then they come up higher.”
Artesia, which never trailed in the first two sets, were up 4-3 in the opening set until junior outside hitter Haley Robertson began to lay the groundwork for the sweep. Her second kill allowed senior opposite hitter Camilla Orozco to serve three straight aces. Seconds later, Robertson served two straight aces and added a third one after a double hit violation was called on the Roadrunners.
The rally ended after a kill from senior outside hitter Djulianne Goze and Robertson’s fourth ace, making the score 15-4.
“I’m really happy that we won,” said Robertson. “I’ve pushed myself a lot to get here, especially for my seniors DJ and Camilla. I’ve played with Camilla for three years now, one in club and two in high school, and throughout [the years] we’ve become really close. And me and DJ are really pumped to get wins; we want to win really bad.”
Scoring sprees were a thing against Loma Linda Academy, which won the 2017 CIF-SS Division 6 championship. Goze would serve the final six points of the set, getting a pair of aces and four more kills from Robertson.
For the second straight set, it was 2-2 early and the Pioneers were leading 5-4 before a kill from senior setter Isabel Cruz paved the way for senior middle blocker Kristina Palafox to get into the serving party with three straight aces followed by a kill from Goze.
It was still within reach at 15-12 when Goze spiked two straight kills and Orozco added two more aces and Robertson had a kill.
“I never tell the girls that I’m nervous because then they get nervous,” said Serrano. “But I am nervous because anything can happen; anything can happen to where [Loma Linda] can come back. We’ve experienced that once with Firebaugh and it’s not a good feeling. The mentality is let’s go hard, let’s play, let’s have fun, but we let them know it’s the playoffs and we obviously want to win.”
Loma Linda took its only lead of the match to begin the third set on a kill from Madison Ghosh before the third place representatives from the 605 League opened up leads of 10-4 and 12-5. But the Roadrunners weren’t about to go away quietly, scoring six straight points for the first time. Still, the Pioneers never allowed the hosts to tie the set until Malia Campbell’s kill made it 23-23. Then a serving error and a controversial net violation call on the hosts sent Artesia to its fourth straight playoff sweep.
“The nerves started to come back,” said Serrano when the score was 11-4. “But like I said, I don’t show them [to the players]. I just motivated them and encouraged them to get the job done; to remind them what they’re capable of and to move forward.”
Robertson led everyone with 19 kills while Goze added a dozen kills. They have been the face of the program for the past two seasons and are the biggest reason why the Pioneers have won more matches this season in at least the past 28 seasons. In fact, the program has seen double-digits in the victory column just three times since 1998. The 2010 team went 10-14 and the 2023 team went 11-9.
“Those two girls…they just have the desire; they’ve got the power, and they have that want,” said Serrano. “I see them both killing all the time and the same amount. Obviously, the numbers don’t lie.”
“I’m really engaged when I play; I play really hard and keep pushing myself to get better and better each game,” said Robertson. “My freshman year, I didn’t really play that much because we had better players. My sophomore year, I played a lot, and we got forced [out of the playoffs], and in my junior year now, I’m really proud of us because we pushed to get here really hard, especially in practice.”
Artesia finished with 20 aces-Orozco and Robertson (five each), Palafox (four) and Goze (three).
