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NORWALK — The El Toro girls volleyball dropped a heartbreaking match in five sets to Westridge, 21-25, 26-24, 25-21, 22-25, 15-13, in the CIF-SS Division 5 final Friday night at Cerritos College.
The Chargers (22-11) were seeking their second CIF-SS title and their first since 2021, but instead it was the Tigers who won their first championship since 2006.
El Toro coach Gus Culver thought momentum was on his team’s side after it won the fourth set and forced a fifth set.
“Unfortunately, we had opportunities, we just couldn’t really build on some of the chances that we got, which was a credit to them,” Culver said of Westridge. “They were playing great defense, and the ball kept coming back over the net. And neither team could really spread by more than a couple points. So … you know, at the end, it was close.”
El Toro went up 11-8 in the fifth set after a kill by middle blocker Liz Njoroge. Westridge coach Jenna Wong immediately called a time out for a moment to regroup.
“I think we were just a battle-tested team, and we knew that we had more in us,” Wong said. “We knew that we had been in this situation, and we have seen ourselves be successful. And I ...