CORONA — A taste. Last season, the Corona girls volleyball program returned to the CIF Southern Section playoffs for the first time in nine years. Although the stay was brief, Panthers coach Paul Schroeder’s team came into 2024 wanting more of that. With Thursday night’s sweep of Monrovia, the Panthers won the program’s first postseason match since 2013. Corona followed up with a 25-13, 25-22, 25-12 sweep of Faith Baptist in Saturday’s Division 5 second-round match, sending the program into the quarterfinal round for the first time since 2003. Wednesday night, Corona (21-14) makes the trip to La Habra, which outlasted La Serna in five sets to advance to the quarterfinals. “There’s a cohesiveness that we’ve been building for the last few years and this season you’re seeing the results of that bonding and the work we’re putting in year round,” senior middle blocker Hannah Hass said. “When we got here as freshman we were this bad team that couldn’t compete and four years later here we are as quarterfinalists with players going onto the next level. It’s going to be hard to let it go but I can’t wait to follow from afar and see them continue what we started.” Corona jumped out to an 8-4 lead in the opening set, which was cut in half following an ace by Faith Baptist’s Kaelyn Hilmo. Brianna Reyna served four of the Panthers’ six aces in the first frame, sparking an 8-0 run which closed things out. “One of the drills we do in practice involves laying tarps down in the deep corners and having to hit those spots with serves or send free balls and down balls to those spots,” Reyna said. “It really forces you to lock in behind the service line. We’ve had great support in these two home matches but on the road we know we’ll have to lean on each other and stick together no matter what happens on Wednesday.” The aces were coming from both sides of the net in the second set. Corona grabbed a 15-8 lead after Hannah Coffee’s ace. But Faith Baptist rallied and cut the deficit to 15-14 behind four straight aces from Lailani Boonyanetr the Contenders. Hass had a pair of kills to preserve Corona’s lead in the middle of the set and then ended it with a kill to give the Panthers a two-set advantage. Related Articles High School Sports | King girls flag football team dominates second half, rallies for playoff win over Etiwanda High School Sports | IE Varsity’s CIF Southern Section playoff scoreboard for Saturday, Oct. 26 High School Sports | IE Varsity’s football wrap-up: Stories, scores and photos from Week 9 games High School Sports | Centennial football coach Matt Logan becomes Inland Empire’s winningest coach with victory over Norco High School Sports | Summit shuts out Jurupa Hills as Mark Mitchell III scores 4 TDs Reyna had three of Corona’s four aces in set third set to help the Panthers jump out to an early lead. A kill by Hass was the final touch and sent the Panthers into Wednesday’s quarterfinal match. “Faith Baptist deserves a ton of credit for just how good their defense is,” Schroeder said. “They just find a way to keep the ball up and force your side to make the errors. It wasn’t our best offensive night but we’ll be ready for Wednesday.” Corona finished Saturday’s match with 14 aces, half of those by Reyna. Amelia Bonnema had 11 kills for the Panthers. Boonyanetr had five aces for Faith Baptist.