FONTANA — It had been a month and a half since the Fontana boys volleyball team went five sets against Redlands and prevailed.
Fontana once again were forced to a fifth set during Wednesday’s CIF Southern Section playoff opener, and this time the season was on the line.
The Steelers again came through, surviving a late Great Oak rally in the final set to pull out a 19-25, 25-11, 25-18, 22-25, 15-12 victory over the Wolfpack,
Fontana (23-7) will travel to El Rancho (20-4) for a Division 5 second-round match Saturday evening.
“We can be a little error prone at times like in that first set, but when we put things together we’re a really good team,” Steelers coach Leah Rodriguez said. “A lot of these guys have been with me since we restarted the program after COVID, and I’m so proud of how far they’ve come in a short period of time.”
Great Oak (20-7) jumped out to an 8-3 lead in the opening set after an ace from Quentin Chiles. Fontana struggled to find their rhythm, committing three attacking errors, a service error and a center-line violation in that opening stretch. And that was a start and deficit the Steelers was unable to overcome .
Fontana’s Serjio Parra had two aces and a kill in their final four points of the second set to help level the match. Donovan Bacon had four kills, and Parra added a kill and block as the Steelers jumped out to a 15-10 lead in the third set. Jonathan Medina’s solo block ended the set and put Fontana up 2-1.
“I had a fun time playing against that Great Oak team and getting pushed tonight,” said Bacon, who finished with a match-high 18 kills. “Winning matches like that is a team effort and everyone who stepped on the court had moments that contributed to tonight’s win.”
Three kills from Chiles plus an ace from Marvin Garcia gave Great Oak a 16-14 lead in the fourth set, and Collin Ramos deftly placed a set into the deep corner to force a deciding set.
Fontana jumped out to an 8-2 lead in the decisive fifth set and forced Great Oak coach Yasser Aguila Todd to burn both of his timeouts in the process.
Ramos had 1 1/2 blocks along with a kill while Chiles added a kill of his own to help Great Oak rally and tie the set at 12. However, three straight Wolfpack hitting errors ended their season and sent the Steelers to the second round.
“I’m so proud of the fight my guys showed tonight against a quality team like Fontana,” Aguila Todd said. “We’ve been in our share of five-set matches recently and this group was up to the challenge each time.”
Chiles had 16 kills to lead Great Oak.
