Glendale Wins Volleyball Title Over Harvard

Someone forgot to tell the Glendale High volleyball team that it wasn’t supposed to have a chance at winning the Southern Section 3-A Division title Saturday at Marina High in Huntington Beach.

The Dynamiters won decisively over top-ranked and previously unbeaten Harvard, taking consecutive games, 16-14, 15-12, 15-12.

“Sweeping Harvard is the sweetest feeling in the world,” Glendale senior outside hitter Chad Blatchley said.

Glendale (16-5), which won all 15 games in five playoff matches, fell behind in the first game, 9-2, as Harvard sophomore Mark Shoptaw and junior Rick Osterloh were nailing their spikes.

The Dynamiters recovered, however, and behind the kills of senior Joey English and Blatchley pulled to within a point of Harvard, 13-12.

The sudden swing in momentum rattled the Saracens, who passed the next serve out of bounds to fall into a 13-13 tie.

After both teams scored on kills, Glendale took advantage of consecutive Harvard passing errors to take the first game.

Harvard jumped to an 4-1 early lead in game two and extended the advantage to 7-2. English, who had a match-high 21 kills, then took control, and, with a combination of his kills and four double-hit calls on Harvard (18-1), the Dynamiters evened the score, 8-8. Glendale took its first lead of the game, 10-9, on a block by Brent Hoxie and Rick Callister and never trailed again en route to a 2-0 lead in the match.

“After we won the first two games I was confident we’d take the match,” Glendale Coach Jack Trotter said. “But we played Harvard earlier in the season and went up two games to none and they came back and beat us. That obviously didn’t happen tonight, and I’m just elated with this championship.”

Glendale bolted to a 6-0 lead in the third game, but Harvard rallied to within 13-12.

Harvard, however, committed two unforced errors, including a backcourt violation that ended the match, and Glendale had won its first title in 11 years of volleyball at the school.