St. Francis volleyball wins neighborhood matchup with La Cañada
LA CAÑADA — Just a few feet footsteps away from one another, St. Francis High and La Cañada’s boys’ volleyball teams took part in a battle of neighbors.
“There was a track meet today so the gate was open and we were just able to easily walk over here,” said Golden Knights coach Mark Frazee about taking on the host Spartans on Thursday afternoon. “We don’t have to worry about getting a bus and we’re here in a few minutes.”
The battle of La Cañada Flintridge residents has been a close affair the last few years, with the teams splitting the previous four meetings.
It looked as if St. Francis and La Cañada might be in for another tight nonleague contest early on Thursday as they played a competitive first game. However, the Golden Knights were able to pull out a win in the opener and things got easier from there, as St. Francis earned a 27-25, 25-21, 25-15 victory against host La Cañada.
The Golden Knights (8-7) struggled at times in the opening game, letting the Spartans (1-4) stick around.
“We definitely let them stay in it with our mistakes,” Frazee said. “That is just not our brand of ball and we just didn’t play well today. Well, I think that La Cañada is a better team than they showed today, I think we’re a better team then we showed, as well.
“Our guys just finished their finals and they are off [Friday], so maybe that had something to do with the way that we played. So maybe it was this kind of letdown of having the next day off.”
St. Francis received seven kills from Brian Castro, six kills from Valentin Medina and 19 assists from Joey Thompson.
The first game proved to be the most competitive, although the Golden Knights committed 14 errors and the Spartans had 16.
There were four lead changes until St. Francis went back in front, 19-18, on a double call on La Cañada. On a 7-1 run, the Golden Knights looked to have seized the momentum with three-point lead, 21-18, following a block by Medina. At game-point, 24-23, St. Francis committed a service error that tied the score at 24. The Spartans went ahead 25-24 on a kill by Harsh Shah (nine kills).
With the Spartans unable to finish off the Golden Knights in the opener, St. Francis went ahead, 26-25, on a La Cañada double call. St. Francis secured the game on a Spartans attacking error into the net.
“We realized that we were making mistakes from the start, not serving well and our passes just weren’t there,” Shah said. “We needed to do a better job at that and we tried to play better.
“It’s just frustrating when you give the other team free points. I think we did good that first game but not so good in the other two games.
In the second game, the teams took turns holding the lead early on. The Golden Knights went ahead, 9-8, and increased their advantage to 17-12 on an ace from Michael Dumansky. La Cañada got to within 23-20 before the Golden Knights finished things after a Spartans service error and an ace by Castro.
“After we made mistakes in that first game, we just came back and played better in the other two games,” Castro said.
St. Francis took the lead in the third game, 12-11, and outscored La Cañada, 13-4, the rest of the way.
Twitter: @jefftsports
