Rocklin outlasts Archbishop Mitty in 5-set thriller to advance to state final

The Rocklin High School girls volleyball team walked into one of California's most intimidating environments Tuesday night in San Jose and walked out with one of the biggest wins in program history. The third-seeded Thunder stunned perennial powerhouse and top seed Archbishop Mitty on its home floor, rallying from a 2–1 deficit to win a five-set classic 3-2 (25–21, 16–25, 16–25, 25–21, 15–10) and clinch a spot in the CIF Open Division State Championship match. For Rocklin coach Bret Almazan-Cezar, it was a triumphant homecoming. During his tenure at Mitty, he lead the Monarchs to 11 state championships, seven national championships and was a four-time national coach of the year. Almazan-Cezar and the Thunder fell to the Monarchs in the Open Division semifinals last year, and he made sure not to go home empty handed two years in a row. "Rocklin's Thunderdome is my home now," Almazan-Cezar said. It wasn't an easy road to the victory. After Rocklin took the opening set, Mitty's speed, tempo and home-crowd energy overwhelmed the Thunder in the second and third. Down 2–1 and struggling to match the pace, Almazan-Cezar kept his message simple. "Stay present," he said. "The game was faster than we're used to, so we talked about posture, being lower, winning the serve-and-pass game. Do we need to meditate now? Whatever it takes to stay in the moment." The Thunder did just that. While many coaches lean on the word "momentum," Almazan-Cezar brushed off the concept entirely. "I don't believe in momentum," he said. "We just focus on winning the next point." Rocklin steadied its serve receive, cleaned up its block and reclaimed the physicality at the net in the fourth set, grinding out a 25–21 win to push the match to a decisive fifth. In that tiebreaker, Rocklin jumped out to an early lead, which Almazan-Cezar credited to strategy rather than emotion. "They flipped their lineup, which changed their offense a bit," he said. "And we started in what we believe to be one of our best serve-and-pass rotations so we could run our middle attack. We got it right." Rocklin's balance carried it through the final frame and Almazan-Cezar noted that there was no single hero or no one swing that defined the night. "It was truly a team effort," Almazan-Cezar said. "Big kills from so many people, big digs, big blocks. Our serving was spectacular. We had 10 players on the court who did their jobs and five more who do their jobs every day." As the Thunder turn the page to the state championship, Almazan-Cezar said nothing about their approach will change. "We will do what we always do, figure out how to get better every day," he said. Rocklin (37-4) is the first public school from the Sac-Joaquin Section to reach the Open Division state final in girls volleyball. The Thunder will face Southern California No. 2 and national No. 3 Mater Dei (34–5) on Saturday at Santiago Canyon College in Orange.