Corona girls volleyball team holds off Canyon Country Canyon in Division 5 championship match
CORONA — Family.
The Corona girls volleyball team is one big family. Head coach Paul Schroeder has daughter Logan on the staff. Assistants Chloe and Bristol Christelman are helping coach sister Charlotte, while sisters Hannah and Claire Hass are players on the squad. And Saturday night, in the CIF Southern Section Division 5 championship match, the large Panther family got to celebrate history following a 25-20, 19-25. 22-25, 25-23, 15-9 victory at home over Canyon Country Canyon for the program’s first title.
“When the regular season ended, I pointed to the wall, told the girls that they had what it took to put a banner up on that wall, and they went and got it done against an incredible Canyon team,” Paul Schroeder said.
Hannah Hass led the way for Corona with 17 kills, three aces and three total blocks, while Amelia Bonnema added 16 kills and five aces for the Panrhers.
“That’s a gritty and determined Canyon team that I have to give credit to for giving us an incredible battle tonight,” Hannah Hass said. “We’ve worked so hard to get here, and to get to share this moment with my sister is just insane because I never thought we’d share a court together in a match like this.”
Canyon’s Mary Audish had an ace which tied the opening set at 11. The Panthers responded with a 6-0 run — sparked by two aces and a kill from Hannah Hass — to go up 17-11. Bonnema had back-to-back aces and a kill to push Corona’s lead to 22-17, and another kill by Hass gave the opening set to the Panthers.
Corona (24-14) took a 10-6 lead in the second set after back-to-back kills from Hannah Coffee. The Cowboys responded with a 7-1 run to take the lead, behind three kills from Parys Taylor and an ace from Layla Tejeda. Coffee’s kill tied it up at 14, but Canyon pulled away and leveled the match by winning the second set.
Trailing 15-11 in set three, the Cowboys responded with an 8-3 run to take a 19-18 lead on an ace from Mallory Linder. Bonnema’s kill cut Canyon’s lead to 23-22. However, a Corona service error gave the Cowboys set point, and Olivia McDonald’s kill gave the visitors a 2-1 lead.
“I couldn’t be prouder of this group for the way we put things together and got ourselves to this match with a chance to win but when you give a team like that new life playing at home anything can happen,” Canyon coach Samantha Holcombe said.
Needing to win the fourth set to force the race to 15, Corona responded by starting with a 5-1 run. Hannah Hass had two kills and assisted on a block with sister Claire in that run, while Bonnema added a kill and solo block. Canyon (22-14) took a brief 13-12 lead after a pair of kills from Taylor and another ace from Linder. However, Corona scored eight of the next nine points to take a 20-14 lead. The Hass sisters combined on a block to send it to a decisive fifth set.
“We knew we had better volleyball in us than what we showed in that third set and went to work proving it to ourselves,” said Bonnema, who with the win makes it a second title for her family after her mother helped Corona win a section championship in 1990.
Canyon led 4-1 early in the fifth after a kill from Olivia Turner, but the Panthers responded with a 12-4 run to surge ahead. Hannah Hass had two kills and a solo block in that run, while Trinity Hovenier added a kill on setter dump. Canyon also recorded a trio of attacking errors, a service error, and a net violation during the decisive stretch. Another net violation ended the match and set off a raucous celebration, highlighted by Logan Schroeder jumping into her dad’s arms near the 10-foot line.
“Sharing this run with my dad has been absolutely unbelievable,” Logan Schroeder said. “All of us assistants are alums of this program, and to come back and see this after going through the years we went through as players makes it 10 times more special for us.”
Taylor had 23 kills to lead Canyon.
Both teams will play in the CIF State Southern California regional tournament, which begins Tuesday.