The parallels between this year and last are striking for the Hilmar High volleyball program. Despite not winning the Trans-Valley League title and a Sac-Joaquin Section blue banner, the Yellowjackets have once again run the table in the CIF State Division V tournament and are back in the regional championship, looking to defend the crown they claimed a year ago.

The Lady ‘Jackets, seeded No. 2 in the D-5 bracket, punched their ticket to the Northern California final with a four-set victory (13-25, 27-25, 25-18, 25-23) against TVL rival and third-seeded Escalon on Saturday evening.

The reigning champions (25-16 overall) will host Tuesday’s title game against No. 4 Colusa (27-13) after the Red Hawks pulled off a 26-24, 25-16, 16-25, 23-25, 15-10 upset of top-seeded Sutter over the weekend. The action will get underway at 6 p.m.

“We want another one of those (regional) banners,” said senior middle hitter Emma Gomes, looking up at the 2018 and 2024 pennants hanging from Strom Gymnasium. “It wasn’t easy tonight, but we just knew what we were playing for and used it as motivation.”

A trip to a second straight regional title game seemed unlikely for Hilmar early on in the thriller with Escalon, the third meeting of the season between the two programs, as the Cougars scored the first eight points of the evening. The smallest deficit of the first set was six points at 13-7, as the Yellowjackets had four net violations, were on the wrong end of four serving aces, three serving errors of their own, and had five hits out of bounds.

The script was entirely flipped early on in the second set, as the Yellowjackets jumped out to a 5-0 lead backed by three points from senior hitter Alyssa Colston, who started the frame with a block and followed it up with a pair of kills. The Cougars roared back to tie the set at six before Gomes and junior middle hitter Reese Ahlem took over. Gomes had three kills, a block and an ace down the stretch, while Ahlem added to two blocks and two kills. Escalon consistently responded, pushing the set to 25-25 before junior Rowan Takhar recorded a tip kill and the Cougars returned fire on a serve out of bounds to end the action.

Hilmar didn’t trail once in the third set, though Escalon battled to tie things at 17. But Gomes continued her dominance, scoring six of the Yellowjackets' last seven points via five kills and a block.

Ahlem had another five kills and two blocks in the fourth set to lead the charge in holding off a desperate Escalon rally. She was aided by four kills from Colston and a pair of kills and a pair of blocks from senior setter Stella Pires. But it was once again Gomes who had the finishing touches, ending the match with a kill, her third of the set and her game-high 13 kills.

“I'm doing everything for my team,” Gomes said. “I've had such a drive and a passion, and I know all the other girls do, too.”

Ahlem was the overall top scorer on the evening, tallying 12 kills and seven blocks. Colston totaled nine kills and two blocks, and junior Emily Barroso added six spikes.

“Everything was just driven by those amazing sets from (Pires),” said Gomes. “It’s all about the center-setter connection we’ve built in practice.”

Pires led all players with 40 assists to go along with eight digs, three blocks and four kills. Pires discussed the messy first set and spoke about how they were able to recover.

“I’m not exactly sure what was wrong,” Pires said. “We all had the conversation (between sets) that it was definitely not how we played our game. But going from that to what we did in the second was so much better.”

Saturday’s meeting marked the first between Hilmar and Escalon that did not go the five-set distance. Hilmar won 22-25, 18-25, 25-21, 25-20, 15-13 on Sept. 11 and Escalon won 25-22, 13-25, 15-25, 25-23, 15-12 on Oct. 7.

“Having played them twice, that's an advantage to both teams,” Gomes said. “We know their tendencies and they know ours. Even though we know so much about each other and we’re in the same league, we treated it just like another team. We didn’t overthink. It was just like, ‘Nope, we have a Saturday game.’ We just had to show up and show out like we’ve been doing this whole state run.”

She said the mindset will remain the same as they aim for a repeat on Tuesday.