Bonita Wins, Bonita Wins, Headed to CIF FINALS!

Moments after Bonita sealed the victory, the celebration was on.

As far as hosts go, Bonita wasn’t very accommodating. The Palms Springs High School volleyball team could have left its chartered bus running because its stay in La Verne was so brief, losing in straight games, 25-15, 25-14, and 25-16. With the win, Bonita will play in this weekend’s CIF-Southern Section Division 3AA championship against Los Altos at Cypress College.

Despite coming to La Verne with a vaunted 23-2 record, Palm Springs was blown out of town faster than a desert tumbleweed on a night when few, if any, teams could have matched up against the Bearcats.

“Everyone was on top of their game,” Bonita head coach Adriana Contreras said. “Everyone really wanted it, and they pulled it off. We made a few servicing errors, but we more than made up for it with our passing and attacking.”

As soon as Palm Springs had a momentary answer for Bonita’s Allie LaPierre or Katie Kirby or Victoria Dennis, another player for the Bearcats would rise up. Danielle Lines, for instance, had an exceptional game, collecting several timely kills to complement the total team’s efforts.

“Danielle, absolutely, had a fine game,” Contreras added. “She’s been working really hard on the right side. She’s been recovering from an ankle injury, and tonight she showed she’s come a long way back. I’m really pleased with how she’s playing.”

A happy Victoria Dennis gets a hug.

Contreras could have been speaking about the entire Bearcats team. The players’ serves were sharper, their sets were more accurate, their kills were crisper, their passing was snappier and their digs were more determined. No loose ball went unattended or unchallenged.

None of the three games ever showed Bonita was in trouble. Kirby started the first game with a kill and LaPierre ended it with an above-the-net, skyscraping smash that had no chance of being returned. Before she struck the final blow for the Bearcats, fans could see a big ear-to-ear smile swelling on LaPierre’s face. It would be the last shot taken by LaPierre on the Bearcats court in her storied tenure at Bonita.

“I wanted that kill so badly,” LaPierre said. “It had to hit the floor. I just had to make it happen.”

It happened, and the moment wasn’t lost on LaPierre.

From left, Katie Kirby and Ashley Maxfeldt proved unstoppable.

“I ‘m so excited,” she added, surrounded by a crowd of hugging and backslapping fans, friends and family. “We’ve been working so hard for so long for this. It’s all been working out for us. I’m so excited to get to that final round. We’ve played both Warren and Los Altos. We know them and we’re excited to play either one of them. I just can’t wait for this weekend.”

Ashley Maxfeldt, who led Bonita in sets against Palm Springs and every other team this season, was also now looking ahead.

“We worked our butts off,” Maxfeldt said. “We put it all on the line to get to this point.”

Kirby, who really had it rolling in Games 2 and 3, converting a high percentage of kill opportunities, also appreciated the moment of Bonita’s crashing the finals party.

“It feels absolutely amazing,” said Kirby, who played more like Killer Kirby than Katie Kirby, her real name, because of the number of spikes she was racking up. “I’m just so proud of our entire team. We’ve worked so hard for this. This is all we wanted. This was the goal of every single player on this team.”

The starters for Bonita: Katie Kirby, Ashley Maxfeldt, Victoria Dennis, Danielle Lines, Kassandra Mejia, Jackie Campa and Allie LaPierre.

Although Bonita’s victory was a wire-to-wire runaway, Contreras said she was still worried.

“It’s the playoffs,” she said, in her defense of never letting her guard down, even in a blowout. “They didn’t run their middle as much I thought they would, but we were well prepared to block the middle.”

On this night, Bonita was well prepared, period. The team would have driven out and picked the Palm Springs team up if only someone had asked. That’s how ready and prepared they were to ensure they would keep their CIF finals appointment this weekend at Cypress College.

One more look at that celebration!