Shapiro, Falcons finish sweep of Nitros
SOUTHEAST GLENDALE — With three weeks left in the regular season and a goal of making the playoffs, the members of the Crescenta Valley High boys’ volleyball team continue to search for their identity.
Crescenta Valley might have found some clues during its Pacific League match against rival Glendale on Wednesday afternoon.
“We are still trying to get things up to where we are supposed to be,” Crescenta Valley Coach John Nelson said after Crescenta Valley came through with a 25-17, 25-14, 25-16 road win against Glendale. “We wanted to come out aggressive and push the level.
“Our biggest thing is they need to play more together. We’ve had to switch up so many things for different reasons.”
Crescenta Valley (8-9, 2-2 in league) looked sharp against Glendale (2-7, 0-4) with main rival Arcadia set to visit Crescenta Valley on Friday. The Falcons, who qualified for the playoffs last season, didn’t look past the Nitros, who played well in spurts but didn’t have the experience to match the Falcons.
Glendale’s serving problems also played a role in allowing the Falcons to complete the two-match season series sweep. The Nitros committed 12 serving errors.
“Our serve against them the first time we played them was good,” said Glendale Coach Ta’ase Mose, whose team suffered a 25-10, 25-10, 27-25 loss March 30 at Crescenta Valley. “Today, it just wasn’t there, and we had too many missed serves.
“That was our problem. We need to fix that in our next practice.”
Crescenta Valley received six kills from outside hitter Logan Shapiro and eight from middle blocker Wesley Cormier.
Shapiro said the Falcons needed an impressive showing against the Nitros, who got six kills and two aces from Regan Ornopia.
“We have good players, but we haven’t played much lately,” Shapiro said. “Sometimes we lose our focus, but once we get down the fundamentals, we are a good team.
“We have some tough matches against Arcadia and Burroughs, so we want to keep up our enthusiasm.”
The Falcons took control of the match in the second game. They jumped out to an 11-3 lead on a kill by Shapiro. Glendale closed to within 18-14 on a kill by Ornopia, but the Falcons used a 7-0 run to take a commanding two-game lead.
