Redemption has been the name of the game for the Moorpark Raiders volleyball team. A win over Irvine Valley College in a five-set thriller April 22 has put them in the State Final against Orange Coast College.

The Raiders have already knocked off an Irvine Valley team that beat them in five sets earlier this season, and they now have an opportunity to knock of the heavily-favored Pirates, who have already eliminated defending state champion Long Beach City College.

According to Raiders head coach Steve Burkhart, the team has been playing at the top of its game to close out the season, giving them the opportunity to make this deep postseason run.

“The team has just played remarkably well in the last month,” Burkhart said in a phone interview. “So right now, we are hoping to just give it our best effort.”

And the strong effort will be needed to get the sweetest taste of redemption of all: knocking off the Pirates on their home floor. A trip down memory lane to last season, where the Pirates upset the Raiders in the first round at Raider Pavilion is just a bitter reminder of what trouble the Pirates have created.

However, Burkhart believes his team has what it takes to win and is not worried about what happened last year in the opening round of the playoffs.

“I think that the guys believe they can win this match,” he said. “We’re approaching it like we have all year—that we’re going to go into the match and do the things that we’ve done all year.”

The Raiders hope to knock on the door of redemption when they battle for a state title against the Pirates in Costa Mesa Saturday, April 24.

And according to Burkhart, the veteran leadership that has posted 32 wins over the past two seasons will take advantage of an opportunity to play for a state championship.

“This has been the most successful two-year group [of sophomores] in the history of Moorpark volleyball,” he said. “They know they have a shot at doing something really special, and I know they are going to give it everything they have.”