Southern Section 4-A Boys Volleyball : Edison Beats Tradition and Laguna Beach

Laguna Beach High School has a history of prep volleyball success.

The rich tradition includes five CIF Southern Section championships and scores of players who went on to successful college careers.

Edison has had a heck of a football team for the last decade or so. But tradition took a beating Tuesday night at Golden West College as Edison beat Laguna Beach, 15-12, 14-16, 15-7, 15-12, in front of an estimated 1,500 spectators, to reach the CIF championship match for the first time ever.

Senior middle blocker Danny Hanan had 25 kills and Rich Smith added 14 to lead the top-seeded Chargers into Saturday night’s championship match against Dana Hills, the team they lost to in last season’s semifinals.

Edison Coach Dan Glenn said the win may be the biggest in the school’s rather uneventful volleyball history.

“Beating this team is S-W-E-E-T,” he said.

“Laguna Beach. You can monitor your program on how you do against these guys.”

After losing the second game and falling behind, 3-0, in the third, Edison scored seven straight points to take a 9-3 lead. Smith had back-to-back service aces for an 11-5 Edison lead, and momentum was clearly on Edison’s side.

Laguna Beach took a 12-8 lead in the fourth game behind outside hitters Matt Kesler and Sean Jordan, but the Artists’ passing broke down and Edison was able to score the last seven points to close out the match.

“It was a breakdown on our part,” Laguna Beach Coach Bill Ashen said.

“They didn’t really serve that tough. We just didn’t pass as well as we could have.”

In crucial situations, there was no great secret about Edison’s game plan: Set the ball to Hanan.

“He comes on at the end of the game or the end of the match,” Glenn said. “That’s the mark of a great player. No one’s stopped him all year at the end of a game.”