Volleyball 3-A Title Bypasses Glendale

Even though the Glendale High volleyball team had lost to Arcadia three times this season, Glendale outside hitter Joey English and his teammates were optimistic going into Saturday night’s Southern Section 3-A Division championship match.

“We weren’t looking to the past, we were looking to the future,” English said after the match.

Glendale did not need to look to the past, the Dynamiters needed to look to their passes.

Arcadia, serving strongly and benefiting from Glendale mistakes, defeated the Dynamiters, 15-13, 15-13, 15-3, at Westminster High in Orange County.

“We knew what we had to do, we just didn’t execute well,” Glendale Coach Jack Trotter said. “We didn’t handle the ball well, we didn’t serve well.”

Arcadia did both very well. Ty Ernt, the Apaches’ 5-foot, 11-inch setter, served for 15 points and had only one miss.

“Our advantage this time was serving,” Arcadia Coach Chuck Freberg said. “And he was the key to our serving.”

Glendale (17-4), the Central League runner-up, jumped to a 9-2 lead in the first game.

But Arcadia (17-2), the Central League champion, was unshaken.

Not only was Glendale having an off night passing, but Arcadia had seen a similar quick start fizzle in last year’s championship, which it lost to Loyola in three games despite leading, 10-1, in the first.

“I told them, ‘Look, if Loyola could come back and beat you last year, you can come back and beat Glendale this year,’ ” Freberg said.

English mishandled an Arcadia serve to make the score 9-3. Two points later, Arcadia’s Scott Olmsted served an ace in front of English, and, two side-outs later, English could only dive and deflect two Ernt serves as Arcadia pulled to 9-8.

The teams battled to a 13-13 tie before Arcadia scored twice on Ernt kills to win the game. Arcadia scored the first seven points of the second game, but Glendale scored 11 of the next 14 to close to within 11-10.

Then the more experienced Apaches, with four senior starters, went to work to pull out another game and, eventually, the match.

“There’s not much difference between the two teams, and with their experience they were a bit stronger mentally,” said Trotter, who started three juniors and English, a sophomore.

Junior Chad Blatchley led Glendale with 12 kills and Trent Parkin added eight.

David Bridgeman, the league most valuable player, led Arcadia with eight kills.