Winners of eight straight, Ripon Christian met its match Tuesday in the first round of the California Interscholastic Federation Division III Northern Regionals.

Fourth-seeded Branham pulled out two competitive sets and ran away with the third 25-22, 25-22, 25-19 in San Jose.

The Bruins (27-10) square off with Blossom Valley Athletic League rival Leigh, the No. 1 seed, on Thursday for a NorCal semifinal. Leigh downed Branham this past weekend for the Central Coast Section Division I championship.

Andrew Casale led the balanced Bruins with 10 kills. Satya Raman added eight kills and three blocks, Martin Jones registered eight kills and three aces, and setter Patrick Willson pitched in four kills, two aces and three blocks. Sophomore middle Pavel Znamerovsky was in on seven blocks.

“They’re good, and you’re going to see teams like that at NorCals,” Ripon Christian coach Kevin Tameling said. “That’s a solid team that has seen solid competition all year long.

“In system, they’re tough and run a very dynamic offense. We gave them too many easy opportunities to run their offense.”

The No. 5 Knights (27-10) trailed for much of the opening set and started the second down, 3-0. They took over from there and appeared on their way to knotting the game score with a 21-18 lead.

Two hitting errors and a kill from Willson tied it up. Willson then ended it with back-to-back aces.

“I think in the first set we were rusty from the long delay from our last match,” Tameling said. RC had not played since sweeping for its Sac-Joaquin Section Division III championship on May 10.

“In the second set, we were doing great and then fell apart. If we win that set, it’s a different match. “It’s kind of a heartbreaker, and didn’t recover from that.”

Mason Tameling paced Ripon Christian with nine kills and two service aces. Reagan Sauer chipped in with seven kills and two blocks. Danny Lambdin had 23 assists.

One of just three seniors on the team, outside hitter Isaiah Vander Woude contributed four kills, two blocks and seven digs.

“We appreciate the time, energy and leadership of the seniors leaving,” coach Tameling said. Jackson Anema and Joel Hendricks are the other seniors.

“We are going to miss them, and we’ll have a lot of questions coming back next year. It will be a great opportunity for (returning) players to get out on the court and prove themselves. Our team last year had a disappointing finish, losing a tough playoff match in four (sets) against Vanden. That prepared us for this year going into the section playoffs, and hopefully this does the same for us next year.”