TEMECULA- It was just shy of five years ago when the Linfield Christian girls volleyball team won the first of back-to-back CIF-SS championships under former head coach Eric Hawes.
After Hawes resigned during the COVID-19 pandemic, Dana Ortiz, a Murrieta Valley graduate who played collegiately at Oregon State and Florida, was brought in as Hawes’ successor, and has guided the Lions to back-to-back playoff appearances in her two full seasons. They have also been the top-ranked team in Division Six for much of the current season.
However, Ortiz, as of the week of Sept. 10, is no longer with the program and finishes her time at Linfield Christian with an overall record of 41-27, 12-11 in Ambassador League play. She was also undefeated in her first eight matches which went five sets with two California Lutheran “Dive into the Season” classic tournament titles, as well as two runners up placements at the Anza Hamilton tournament.
Kat Pierce, a former UC Riverside player, and coach at Forza1 volleyball club of Temecula, who was serving as an assistant, has been named interim head coach for the Lions who went 1-1 this week with a win against Aquinas and loss to Arrowhead Christian. An attempt to reach school administrators for comment was unsuccessful as of the publishing of this article.
Linfield Christian will host Ambassador League title favorite Ontario Christian, who is on a 54 match Ambassador League winning streak, on Tuesday in their lone match of the week. Whoever takes the job on a permanent basis for 2024 will be the Lions ninth girls volleyball coach over an 18-year span.
Derryl Trujillo can be reached by email at socaltrekkie@gmail.com.
