Crescenta Valley volleyball stays perfect with win over Glendale
LA CRESCENTA â For a moment, albeit a brief one, it looked as if the Crescenta Valley High boysâ volleyball teamâs undefeated season and 12-match winning streak were in jeopardy.
Hosting Glendale in a Pacific League match on Wednesday afternoon, the Falcons trailed by seven points midway through the first game, plagued by miscommunication and other miscues.
âI donât know,â Falcons Coach John Nelson said of the sluggish start. âWe were having a hard time getting up to speed.â
Eventually, they caught up enough to sweep the visiting Nitros, 26-24, 25-17, 25-17.
PHOTOS: Crescenta Valley maintains perfect season against Glendale
âWe came in to put up a fight,â Glendale Coach Taase Mose said, âbut then we couldnât finish.â
Glendale (2-4, 1-3) took advantage early, grabbing a 2-0 lead immediately off a block from sophomore Hence King. Its lead grew to 11-6 and as much as seven points. In fact, the Nitros never trailed in the opening game until Crescenta Valley senior hitter Henry Sim blocked a spike attempt to knot the score at 19. It capped a five-point rally for the Falcons (13-0, 3-0) in which Sim had three blocks and the serving Min Kim posted two aces.
Later, an ace from junior Barsemian Raymond knotted the score at 24. Raymond, who tallied a team-high five aces, rattled off two more to pull the Falcons ahead to take the first set.
âIt was a lack of focus with those last few points,â Mose said, âand then they caught up and we go from there. But they serve pretty tough.â
Crescenta Valleyâs momentum carried over into the next frame. Although a service error would hand Glendale a 1-0 advantage, senior Christopher Hanâs kill tied the score at 1 and the Falcons never trailed again â in either the second or third game.
âTheir offense is fast-paced,â Mose said. âIt was hard for us to put up a block most of the time. Theyâre a really solid team.â
Han posted five kills, while Kim finished with a team-high eight kills and Raymond had seven, all of them coming over the final two sets.
Although unimpressed with the style of play overall, as Crescenta Valley was hampered throughout the contest with errors, Nelson credited his teamâs workman-like approach.
âTheyâre pretty focused,â he said. âThey feel like they have something theyâre trying to accomplish.â
Arcadia will be the next Pacific League foe to put the Falconsâ winning streak to the test. The Apaches play host Friday night.
âItâs not very often,â Nelson said of the streak. âYou win your first game of the year and youâre like âYay, weâre undefeated.â But theyâve been pretty focused on just winning the next game and now theyâve strung a few of them together and theyâre like âOK, this is kinda cool.ââ
Glendale also hits the road Friday for league play at Burbank.