GARDEN GROVE — It was quite the ride.
When the 2024 CIF Southern Section playoffs began, Miller’s girls volleyball program was winless in nine previous postseason matches.
Over a week and a half, the Rebels won three matches — including back-to-back, five-set thrillers — to reach Saturday night’s Division 8 semifinal match at Garden Grove. However, that ride came to an end as Miller struggled with a tough-serving Argonauts team in a 16-25, 25-17, 14-25, 22-25 loss.
“I’m overwhelmed with joy at just how far we’ve come since I got here, even though tonight didn’t go our way,” Miller’s second-year coach Lala Keo said. “Garden Grove did a great job in the serve-and-pass game of making us uncomfortable, and that pressure made it tough for us offensively. Although I lose ten seniors at year’s end I hope tonight is a motivation for my five returners and the ten freshmen that came out to watch us play to keep working and get back here next year.”
Sets one and two were decided by big runs keyed at the service line.
In the opener, Garden Grove’s Liunelle Gasatan served three straight aces sandwiched around a Miller timeout as the Argonauts prevailed behind a 13-4 closing run..
Thu Vu’s ace gave the Argonauts an early 7-4 lead in set two, but Miller (19-10) went on a 14-4 run to take a 20-11 lead. Jasmine Del Valle served three aces in a four-point span, and Aubrey Vasquez finished the run with a kill. Natalie Ron’s kill gave the Rebels a set two win and tied the match.
With the scored tied at 9 in the third set,, Garden Grove (17-19) went on a 10-4 run. Vu served up another pair of aces in that run, while Lucy Patkowski added two kills. Bianca Viera served up three straight aces to give the Argonauts a 23-14 lead and consecutive setting errors by Miller finished another set win for Garden Grove.
“I told the girls that they needed to finish it in four because we knew that Miller wasn’t going to be afraid of a fifth set and they’d have a ton of momentum if it went that far,” Garden Grove coach Frankie Perales said. “This team reminds me of our 2019 group because we’re very undersized and have to rely on our serving and defense just like they did. The biggest difference is that this group is really young as opposed to the senior-laden group I had back then.”
Miller was down 14-10 in the fourth set but went on a 6-1 run to take a 17-15 lead. Melody Walton had a solo block and kill in that stretch for the Rebels. Tied at 21, two Rebels’ attacking errors and a missed serve gave Garden Grove set point. And one final kill from Patkowski sent the Argonauts to their second championship match in five years.
Garden Grove returns to the finals for the first time since 2019. The Argonauts will play Bell Gardens for the championship Saturday, Nov. 9, at Cerritos College at 10 a.m.
“Getting to championship weekend is just an amazing feeling because I didn’t think we’d get here at all,” Nusser said. “I just want that match to be tomorrow, in all honesty, so we can go out there and finish what the 2019 team started.”
Garden Grove servers recorded an impressive 14 aces Saturday night with Gasatan, Viera, and Vu each finishing with three. while Nusser added five kills.
Walton had six kills and three solo blocks for Miller. The Rebels have qualified for the CIF State playoffs, which will begin on Nov. 12.
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