The No. 2 seed Rocklin High School girls volleyball team defeated El Camino 3-1. It was reported the win included a 35-33 final set victory to advance to the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division II championship match against No. 1 Vintage tonight 8 p.m. at UC Davis.

The Eagles were the reigning Div. II champions and defeated the Thunder two years ago in the championship match.

Last week, the Rocklin dispatched a motivated Vacaville club to advance.

After upsetting No. 7 Yuba City, the No. 10 seed Bulldogs were hoping to keep their momentum going. The visitors kept the Thunder from running away in the first set, but eventually fell 27-25, thanks to a game-ending service ace by Megan Richwine.

“After game one,” said Thunder head coach Dave Muscarella, “I told them; here’s our mistakes, bad serving, bad passing … I told them, let’s start over and forget what happened in the past.”

Following his instructions, the Thunder came out to take the second set 25-20. Richwine again was a key factor in the triumph, as was Megan McBroome.

“Middle of the second set when Megan McBroome made that big play,” said senior Jolie Meade, “we rallied together and brought the heat. We took the momentum and carried it over and played Rocklin volleyball.”

Rocklin found its groove in game three and cruised to a 25-15 win and closed out Vacaville’s season.

“I’m not as concerned in set wins,” Muscarella said, “I want us to gel more together. We need to work on focus, on intensity. It wasn’t until the third set where we finally started to see it.”