The dream has come true for sisters Eliana and Karina Urzua of the Bishop Diego girls volleyball team. They are going to play for a CIF championship.
The Urzuas and the Cardinals booked their place in the Southern Section Division 3 final on Saturday with a 25-23, 22-25, 25-19, 25-19 victory over a tough Cypress team at the Brick House Gym.
Bishop Diego (29-7) will play Long Beach Poly for the title next Saturday at a site to be determined on Monday. Long Beach Poly outlasted Windward in five sets in the other semifinal.
In the only season they’ll play together at Bishop, the freshman Karina and the senior Eliana vowed to lead the Cardinals back to the final for the first time since 2021, when coach Dillan Bennett guided the program to the Division 7 championship.
“Ever since they won the 2021 title, we’ve just been thinking about that. And since I came here, that’s like just been our end goal, and it’s actually starting to come true,” said Karina, who watched sisters Eliana, Alina and Siena lead the Cardinals to the ’21 title from the team bench as a sixth grader.
“I’m over the moon about it,” said Eliana, who blasted a match-best 28 kills and had four solo blocks against Cypress. “Me and Karina have been talking about it since she was on the bench with me and my two older sisters, so it means a lot to all of us. All of us (on the team) have been working really hard together, and one thing that we usually talk about is just playing as a family. Over the past couple of games, we’ve just been playing like that.”
The Cardinals picked each other up when a high-tempo Cypress squad pushed them and forced Bennett to make some defensive adjustments. He said he flipped his rotation in the third set to counteract the powerful hitting of Cypress outside hitter Isabella Faro, who had 11 of her team-high 19 kills in the first two sets.
“We flipped Wynter (Thorne-Thomsen) and Eliana in the rotation in game three so that we could have our size at the net against their three-hitter rotations,” Bennett explained. “We kept getting stuck with Karina blocking No. 16 (Faro) and that switched so that Nicole (Schuetz) was blocking 16.
“Now it put a lot of pressure on Eliana and Nicole because they were in the front row for two of their three rotations, which put even more pressure on Wynter and Vivi (Klentner) and Karina to score when Eliana and Nicole were in the back row. And that’s a lot of pressure when you have your two kill leaders in the back row.”
Thorne-Thomsen, Klentner and Karina Urzua made the adjustment work as they stepped up with timely plays to hold off the Centurions.
Karina Urzua dumped a ball after a Natalie Chan dig for a 19-15 lead in the fourth set. Cypress (19-14) cut the deficit to two on a Shayla Cotright side out and Kennel Harris kill before Klentner scored a crazy point in the middle front. The Centurions tipped over the net and Klentner turned, stuck her arm out and popped the ball back. The Cypress defenders were slow to react and the ball dropped to the floor, bringing big smiles to all the Cardinals and a 20-17 lead.
“Vivi, I just love her,” said Karina. “She always has the craziest ups that nobody expects and it’s just so exciting for her. It’s very cool.”
Middle Sophie Otte stepped up big time for the Cardinals in the fourth set. She blocked for a point and served back-to-back aces. She finished the match with five kills, three aces and two solo blocks.
“She’s huge, and it’s a big step up for her,” Bennett said of the junior transfer from Laguna Blanca. “She’s gone from being the predominant player on her team last year that relied on her to score points, and she’s done such a tremendous job of settling into her role. And, she’s really bought into what the coaching staff and I would like to see from her, which is a lot of blocking and then go back and be a force from the service line.”
Otte gave Cypress passers fits with her flat, no-spin serve.
“Well, I definitely got to thank my coach for that, because he gave me the spots to serve and really just zoning in on what could be effective to get us the next point.”
Bishop and Cypress went toe to toe in the first set. Down 21-18 coming out of a time out, the Cardinals capitalized on a Centurion serving error and a ball-handling violation. On the next play, Eliana Urzua stuff blocked an attack to tie the score.
After another Cypress service error knotted the score at 23, Bishop scored the final two points on a Eliana Urzua block and a tough serve by Karina Urzua to take the set.
Faro carried the load for Cypress in the second set, blasting kills from the front and back row, blocking for points and serving an ace. Bishop battled back from a 23-17 deficit behind the serving of Annabelle Aslanian and the powerful hitting of Eliana Urzua. Urzua scored the Cardinals’ last five points but they weren’t enough as Harris delivered two side-out kills to win the set for the Centurions and square the match at 1-1.
In the third set, Eliana Urzua continued to hit bombs and Nicole Schuetz (13 kills) and Thorne-Thomsen got their arm swings going to help Bishop build a 21-13 lead. Urzua finished off the set with a dig and a kill.
The fourth set was tight all the way. Schuetz blasted a back set from Karina Urzua to break a 14-14 and give Bishop the lead for good. The senior scored the match-winning point with a stuff block to send the Cardinals back to a CIF-SS title match.
“It was a lot of work to beat a really talented Cypress team,” said Bennett. “And here we are, getting ready for Saturday.”
