Rocklin put an end to Oak Ridge’s dreams of a Sac-Joaquin Section volleyball title on Tuesday, beating the Trojans in four games to advance to Thursday’s final.

The Thunder, 33-6 on the year, will face Granite Bay in Thursday’s championship match at Jesuit High. Rocklin coach Dave LaCoste knows the task of knocking off the Grizzlies will be difficult.

“We played Granite Bay earlier and didn’t do very well, losing in three close games,” LaCoste said. “Granite Bay has this aura about them since they’ve dominated volleyball in this area since 2004. If we can get by that, I think we’ll be fine. It’s good that the game is at a neutral site.”

Rocklin defeated Oak Ridge 27-25, 22-25, 25-22, 25-23 on Thursday. As the scores indicate, it was an evenly played match, but the Thunder did a little bit more and got the win.

“I thought it was a very well played match by both teams,” Oak Ridge coach Tom Van Der Wende said. “It was pretty much a two-point match through all the games and it could have gone either way.”

The Trojans, 31-7, will play Ponderosa at 5 p.m. Thursday at Jesuit in the consolation match for third place.

Oak Ridge led the first game 18-15, but couldn’t close it out. Jack Hoisington gave the Trojans the serve on match point following a kill, but Oak Ridge failed to block a Rocklin kill attempt and the ball sailed out of bounds on the Oak Ridge side. Rocklin took the next point on a tip by Tyler MacKanin and after the two teams traded points, the Thunder won it with a block of Oak Ridge’s Sean Bassemier.

The Trojans stumbled briefly early in the second game before turning it on in the middle portion of the game, bringing momentum back on their side. With Oak Ridge leading 12-10, Bassemier’s tip put his team up 13-10 and he then served up five straight points, as the Trojans opened up the biggest lead at any point during the night, 18-10. Stigerts and Jonathan Tuttle had blocks during the run and Hoisington added a big kill as the Trojans extended their lead.

From there Oak Ridge coasted to a 25-22 win.

Rocklin took its biggest lead of the night in the third game, up 19-12, but Oak Ridge battled back to cut the lead to one at 23-22, before the Thunder closed out the match, 25-22.

The fourth and final game was close throughout, as the team’s battled to a 22-22 tie. Rocklin’s Grant Wilson picked up a block late to earn his team the lead and Matt Laughrea ended it with a kill.

“They’ve got some pretty good weapons and they hit the ball well,” Van Der Wende said of Rocklin. We got some blocks here and there, but we could have used a few more.”

LaCoste said MacKanin led the way in the final two games with a big assist to Laughrea. He also had words of praise for the Trojans.

“Oak Ridge is a good team,” LaCoste said. “We played them in preseason and took them pretty easily, but they’ve improved immensely. They helped us in a big way to prepare for Granite Bay.”