The free afternoon celebration welcomes all military veterans and their families for a meal, music by The Tomcats, and door prizes in honor of their service.
The Arrowhead Christian Academy girls volleyball team came off two rocky practices and lost to Wiseburn Da Vinci of El Segundo, 3–1, on Saturday in the CIF–Southern Section Division 6 final. The scores were 22–25, 25–20, 25–18, 25–19.
The Eagles continue their season Tuesday in the CIF State Southern California Regionals.
“We had some tough practices before getting here and I think mentally we just fell apart at times,” ACA coach Brittney Amey said. “We just weren’t really locked in at our last two practices. When you’re practicing before finals you need to be fighting. When you get this late in the season, the girls are tired – they’re exhausted. I talked to them and said, ‘You can have bad practices and still come out and win.’ But also when you lose, you have to look at practices and say, ‘That did have a part.’”
ACA talks it over during the fourth set. (Photo by John Murphy)
Despite the iffy workouts, ACA won the first set. The Eagles (18–12) fell behind 4–0 and 7–3 but outscored Wiseburn Da Vinci 14–1 to take control. Josie Weirs had five first-set blocks, and Eva In’t Hout and Weirs added key kills. In’t Hout’s kill sealed the set.
But then Wiseburn Da Vinci (21–15) took command behind senior setter Maleah Faust and junior outside hitter Alina Hunter.
Tied 10–10 in the second set, the Wolves went on an 8–1 run to seize control. Hunter’s kill ended it. She had five for the match and Faust had six.
ACA's Victoria Bingaman goes for a kill. (Photo by John Murphy)
“It was a tough match,” Wiseburn Da Vinci coach Mylah Wessels said. “We came in with our team half-sick, so we had to adjust for that. We switched them in and out because we weren’t feeling 100 percent. We had to bring everything we had, sick or not. And they were amazing. It tested our team. We worked hard this week on watching some things we saw on film.”
Ahead 18–16 in the third set, the Wolves closed with a 7–2 run to win it as ACA committed several errors and violations.
In the fourth set, the Eagles trailed 8–6 before being outscored 8–0. Though ACA fought to rally, they never got closer than seven points the rest of the way.
In’t Hout and Victoria Bingaman led ACA with six kills each, and Weirs had four kills and 14 blocks.
"They have a never-give-up attitude,” Wessels said of ACA. “Whether we put a ball down or not, they just came back up and played it again.”
Amey praised her team’s resilience.
The Wolves' Gabrielle Kim goes up against ACA's Layla Anton and Haley Adams (14). (Photo by John Murphy)
“We have grit,” she said. “We came back from losing a lot in league. It was exciting and also scary when we found out we were in the playoffs. We thought, ‘Oh, we’re not playing well.’ But our team showed a lot of grit to come out and just win, win, win after so many losses in league.”
The Eagles defeated Gabrielino, South Hills, Cantwell–Sacred Heart of Mary, and Pacifica before falling to the Wolves.
Now, Wessels has a championship matching Wolves boys coach Jeff Wessels’ 2023 title. Jeff is Mylah’s husband. Those are the only section titles for the eight-year-old school that, as Mylah Wessels admits, few people have heard of.
A third-generation San Francisco native. His first job was in Watsonville, where he wrote stories on a typewriter and people smoked in the office. He's covered Redlands, San Bernardino and Riverside.
