Hemet girls won it’s own volleyball tournament, The Dan Quam Memorial, at Hemet High. The nine teams competed in three three-team pools where the Bulldogs beat Temescal Canyon 25-9 and 25-23 while getting in a lot of players and gaining varsity level competition.
After a game off, next up was 29-Palms Wildcats who were handled 25-11 and 25-10.
Hemet earned a second seed in the tournament play and had to take on a very good division 2A team in Palm Springs who got past San Jacinto. The first game was a very intense and balanced game with no team gaining much of a lead. Every time Hemet would attack, Palm Springs dug in and kept it close, never trailing by more than 3 points throughout the game until the last point. The Bulldogs got through the first game 25-21. The second game was drastically different as the girls dug themselves a hole and found themselves trailing 6-1. After a quick timeout and some adjustments, the Dogs closed the gap to 10-8 but were still down. With tremendous heart, the girls gutted it out on offense and defense, putting in serves and keeping the ball in play. There was great volleyball on both sides of the net but the girls rallied and got the win 25-23 to set up the championship match with Xavier Prep.
The championship game had the Bulldogs in control, consistently digging, passing, hitting and blocking as they kept building their lead and took the first game 25-18. The second game was more of a concern for the girls as they lost Senior Captain, team leader and outside hitter Baylee Christian to a knee issue. She went out early in the game to ice her knee and did not see anymore action. As with the whole Bulldog team, every player was ready to step it up and Freshmen Grace Johnson got the call and delivered as the team went on to win the second game and championship 25-17.
All tournament team members from Hemet were Baylee Christian, Tristan Self, and Taylor VanZee.
The team is on it’s way to run deep into CIF again this year in division 4AA but has the added pressure of being a three-time and defending CIF champion.