Flintridge Prep, Crescenta Valley High and La Cañada boys’ volleyball teams punch postseason tickets
Having posted winning records and finishing no worse than third in their respective leagues, the Flintridge Prep, Crescenta Valley High and La Cañada boys’ volleyball teams can now shift their attention to the playoffs.
The CIF Southern Section office unveiled its postseason pairings for all five divisions Friday, with the Rebels, Falcons and Spartans slated to take part in first-round matches at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
Flintridge Prep, which shared the Prep League championship with Chadwick, but was determined to be the league’s top representative by virtue of a coin flip, will meet visiting Nuview Bridge in a Division IV contest.
Crescenta Valley, a third-place finisher in the Pacific League, will travel to Riverside La Sierra for a Division II matchup.
La Cañada, which took third in the Rio Hondo League, will hit the road to Yorba Linda in a Division III match.
Flintridge Prep (17-5) wrapped up the regular season on an 11-1 streak. Nuview Bridge (10-101) is a freelance team.
Rebels Coach Sean Beattie said his team will field only one player with postseason experience in Dante Fregoso. However, Beattie is confident the Rebels have the personnel to make a deep postseason run.
“We feel good about our team right now,” Beattie said. “We had that hiccup when we lost to Chadwick, but we came back from down 0-2 against Pasadena Poly [on Tuesday].
“We’ve been able to come together and we are in a good position. Hopefully, we can come out strong early and build on our confidence.”
The winner of the Flintridge Prep-Nuview Bridge match will take on Damien (20-6), Glenn (13-9) or La Serna (10-13) in a second-round match Thursday.
Crescenta Valley, which will make its first playoff appearance in two seasons, went 22-6 during the regular season.
The Falcons will make the trip to the Inland Empire to face La Sierra, which went 14-2 and placed second in the Big VIII League.
Veteran Crescenta Valley Coach John Nelson said the Falcons are ready for the postseason.
“We’ve been playing a lot better and the pieces are starting to fall into place,” Nelson said. “I don’t really know anything about La Sierra, but we have a chance to win.
“At least we aren’t playing a wild-card match [Saturday]. There are some third-place teams who have to play wild-card matches. If we can win, then we have a chance to play a second-round match at home.”
The winner of the Crescenta Valley-La Sierra match would then meet second-seeded Laguna Beach (19-5), Quartz Hill (10-8) or El Modena (11-9) in a second-round tilt Thursday.
La Cañada will head to Orange County to face Yorba Linda, which shared the Empire League championship with Tustin. Yorba Linda went 18-7 during the regular season.
The Spartans, who finished with a 14-11 record, reached the quarterfinal round last season in head coach Otto Lacayo’s first season and are hoping for a repeat effort.
“I don’t know too much about Yorba Linda, but we’ve begun to look at stuff on them,” Lacayo said. ”We’re excited. I think we have a good shot at getting back to the quarterfinals. We still have a very young team, but we’re getting stronger little by little.”
The winner of the La Cañada-Yorba Linda match will battle Crossroads (12-2) or Bell Gardens (8-2) in a second-round match Thursday.
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Follow Charles Rich on Twitter: @TCNCharlesRich .
