---
title: "Road to the Playoffs: Girls Volleyball"
description: Follow the Orange Lutheran girls volleyball team's journey as they reach CIF Semifinals for the first time since 2017. Exciting updates await!
---

[Lancer News - Orange Lutheran High School Blog](https://blog.lhsoc.org)

# [Road to the Playoffs: Girls Volleyball](https://blog.lhsoc.org/road-to-the-playoffs-girls-volleyball)

 Written by [Dave Cacciapuoti](https://blog.lhsoc.org/author/dave-cacciapuoti) | October 26, 2023 at 5:37 PM

### Preseason 

As dawn broke on the 2023 girls volleyball campaign, head coach Henry Valiente was excited about the future. The Lancers had six senior returners and a good mix of young, talented underclassmen.

 

### Regular Season

OLu opened the season on the Hawaiian Islands, playing in the Ann Kang Invitational.  The Lancers struggled in the prestigious tournament, going 2-6.

 

But the quality competition they played helped them as they returned to the mainland. OLu won 5 of their first six regular season tilts, including wins over Corona Del Mar and Ontario Christian.

At the Whitter Classic, the Lancers went 6-1, losing in the finals to Los Alamitos. 

 

As Trinity League play arrived, OLu found themselves at 13-8 overall. They went 4-4 in league play, beating Rosary twice and splitting contests with JSerra and Santa Margarita.

 

The Lancers concluded the regular season 22-13 overall and were slotted into the Dicision Division 2 bracket as the #4 overall seed. 

 

### Playoffs

In the first round, the Lancers played a familiar foe: Etiwanda. It was the third straight postseason the Lancers faced off with the Eagles on the road. OLu came out victorious 3-0 to advance to round 2. 

 

They returned to the road to take on defending CIF Champ Aliso Niguel.  It took all five sets and a rally from 2-1 down, but the Lancers outlasted Aliso to advance to the quarterfinals with a 3-2 win.

Back home for the first time in the postseason, OLu hosted Edison in front of a packed house in the Ellwein Center. The Lancers used that crowd to storm to a 15-point first-set victory. Despite the Chargers taking game 2, the Lancers fed off the crowd as they took both sets 3 and 4 to win 3-1.  

The win propelled the Lancers to the CIF Semifinals for the first time since 2017.  They will travel to take on #1 seed Redondo Union on Saturday, October 28.

 

*Related: [Westley Matavao helps lift Orange Lutheran girls volleyball past Edison in CIF-SS quarterfinals](https://www.ocregister.com/2023/10/25/freshman-westley-matavao-helps-lift-orange-lutheran-girls-volleyball-past-edison-in-cif-ss-quarterfinals/)*

 

Follow the Lancers run on [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/olu_athletics/) or the athletics app.

[View full post](https://blog.lhsoc.org/road-to-the-playoffs-girls-volleyball)

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