The Fresno City College women’s Volleyball defeated Sierra in five games on Tuesday night to advance to the state championships.

Fresno City College came into the match with a record of 25-1 while the Sierra Wolverines had a record of 23-6.

“That’s an amazing team on the other side. We knew that coming in,” said Schulte about the Sierra wolverines.

FCC won the first game by the score of 25-22 but lost the second and third games. This was the first time in the playoffs that the volleyball team had lost a game.

The Rams faced elimination in the fourth set but were able to hold off the Wolverines and win the game by the score of 26-24. The final game had the entire crowd in the gym on their feet as FCC pulled out the victory with a score of 15-13.

“It was exactly what we expected it to be. We came into practice saying it could be three (sets), it could be five (sets),” said Schulte.

FCC relied heavily on freshman Morgan Dose who  had 15 kills  and Sophomore Courtney Thacker who had 50 assists in the game. Mckenzie Buchanan finished the game with 22 digs.

This concludes a three game stretch for the Rams in which they hosted playoff teams as the No. 1 seed. The Rams first playoff game came against Diablo Valley.

Though the Rams felt they underestimated their opponent in that match, they still came away with a victory in three games.

After the game against Diablo Valley, FCC player Courtney Thacker said “this game was not our best. We were kind of slow. I think because they were seeded No.16 and we were No.1, we came in kind of slow.”

Thacker finished with 17 assists against Diablo Valley.

Central Valley Conference MVP Toni Murphy thought the team needed a “better mindset” after their first playoff game.

She said the team needed “more talking, covering more and just being aggressive on the court.”

The second round saw the Rams come in more prepared than the week before and take on the Gavilan Rams in a game that ended in three sets but was a constant battle throughout.

The scores of the three games were 25-16, 25-23 and 25-23.

Sophomore Toni Murphy had ten kills and ten digs while Madison Rhinehart had 8 kills and 6 digs.

Following the Saturday night game against Gavilan, Shulte said “We didn’t do a whole lot in particular but we talked about the way we played on Tuesday, which wasn’t going to be enough to get where we want to be in the end. I don’t think we played as crisp and clean as we could have but it was definitely an improvement over Tuesday.”

Following the Gavilan game, Schulte said “In playoff time you always have to expect them (the games) to be close, for sure, so to be done in three is a good sign for us so we can go home and rest up.”

The Rams will now move on to the state championships at Chabot College in Fullerton.

This is a return to the state championship for Schulte, who last took the Rams to the state championship in 2008.

Schulte said the team is ready to face any opponent.

“We’re ready for it. We’re looking forward to it,” said Schulte.

“We deserve the shot. We’ve earned the opportunity to be there and I’m expecting good stuff from us when we get there.”