MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

By Brandon Petersen

Fear the Poet.

Fear the dislocated finger.

But fear Simpson?

That was a new one for the Warriors after the first set of a thrilling 3-1, Cal Pac Championship-claiming win Friday afternoon at Whittier College.

Nevertheless, the No. 7 Warriors, who had yet to be touched in three days, finally took their first punch from none other than the Red Hawks — ah, yes, the Cal Pac rivalry that never quits.

Simpson slammed the brakes on Cal Pac Player of the Year Gabriel Pizza early, focusing all their efforts his way and leaving the work to Tom Dempsey.  

Initially, it worked.

Cal Pac Coach of the Year, Alex Griffiths, credited Simpson afterward, but was quick to bring the focus back to the Warriors, who she felt made life hard on themselves.

"I think for us, we were doing a good job on doing like first ball execution with the serve receive," she said, "but we weren't doing a good job of defense and earning our points and putting enough service pressure on them."

But for Pizza, a relentless competitor, the turnaround started in Set 3 and exploded in Set 4.

After dropping the opening set while hitting -.069, Westcliff hit .269 in the second to even things before delivering its most aggressive stretch in the third, recording 17 kills to seize momentum for good.

Pizza paced with 13 kills, four service aces and nine digs.

Nikos Kalagasidis, another brilliant Cal Pac first-teamer, orchestrated the offense with 43 assists, while Tiago Silva was nearly untouchable in the middle, hitting .467 with 10 kills.

M'hamed Mifdal added five blocks to anchor the defensive effort down low.

Simpson, meanwhile, pushed the Warriors throughout.

Freshman OH Dehryn Brown out of Elk Grove (just south of Sacramento), and Akira Davies out of Honolulu gave the Dubs trouble on the ends, and Diego Chavez, a freshman out of Sacramento, was dominant at times in the middle.

"It's the best they've played," Griffiths said. "They came out with nothing to lose. We also probably played our worst, so it was a great opportunity for them to take us down."

Westcliff steadied itself as the match progressed, closing out the fourth set with a .258 hitting percentage while limiting Simpson to .065.

Pizza took over down the stretch in the fourth with a focused stare to accompany his customary swagger.

Neither he nor the Warriors were to be denied in this tournament.

The championship caps a perfect conference run for the Warriors, who finished the season 20-4 overall and 10-0 in Cal Pac play.

Still, the standard remains higher for the No. 7 Warriors, who have a legitimate shot at an NAIA championship.

"We cannot play like this if we're going to make it all the way," Griffiths said. "We've got a lot of work to do in a week to fine-tune things.

"We're not playing not to lose — we're playing to win."

Cal Pac Seeding Jamboree (Whittier, Calif.)

Westcliff def. Central Christian, 3-0
Westcliff def. Walla Walla, 3-0

Cal Pac Tournament (Whittier, Calif.)

Semifinal: Westcliff def. Walla Walla, 3-0
Championship: Westcliff def. Simpson, 3-1