Ferguson Delighted by Royal Shock

Longtime Royal High volleyball Coach Bob Ferguson had never witnessed the rabid intensity at a volleyball match he saw Friday night when his Highlanders played host to Marmonte League rival Thousand Oaks.

“The electricity in the gym was just incredible,” he said. “Downright incredible.

“We opened both sides of the bleachers and it was full. I’d say there were 1,000 people. That doesn’t happen in L.A. It doesn’t happen in the CIF playoffs. In high school volleyball, that never happens.”

But it did happen because events leading up to the match built substantial drama.

Thousand Oaks entered the match 11-0 in league play and ranked first in Southern Section Division II. Royal was 10-1 in league play, its only setback a five-game loss to the Lancers on March 22.

That match marked not only Royal’s first defeat in 66 league matches--a streak spanning more than six seasons--it also was the first time Royal had lost a game in league play, snapping a string of 198 victories in a row.

Revenge was certainly on the mind of Royal, a perennial powerhouse which occupied the strange position of trailing an area rival.

“My only worry before the match was that the adrenaline would be too much,” Ferguson said. “I tried to be really calm talking to them after school, telling them that they just had to do their job.

“But in the team room (before the match), their eyes were on fire.”

Their performance was equally smoldering. Royal opened the match with a resounding stuff block of a Thousand Oaks spike attempt and the crowd erupted.

The Highlanders proceeded to play their best match of the season and defeated the Lancers, 15-9, 15-6, 15-10.

Both teams have 11-1 league records with two matches to play. If they finished tied, they would be declared league co-champions.

However, Royal would get the league’s top seeding for the Southern Section playoffs, because its victory against Thousand Oaks came in only three games, while the Lancers’ victory against Royal required five games.

“It was definitely important for us to win in three or four games,” said Ferguson, who was able to savor one of the sweetest victories in his seven seasons as Royal’s coach.

“I’m still bubbly about it,” he said. “I’ve been to high school basketball games like that, but never to a high school volleyball match like that.”

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Welcome addition: Equally important for Royal, ranked third in Division II, has been the return of 6-foot-6 senior Matt Olsen, who has faced more than his share of adversity.

Olsen suffered a foot injury before the season and missed the first month and a half, returning barely three weeks ago.

Then, on April 18, his mother, Lorraine, died of cancer. The entire Royal team attended the funeral.

Olsen played in a match the next day, and also last Friday, one day after he attended a second funeral for his mother in Utah.

“He’s handled it really well,” Ferguson said.

Olsen, who has had only eight days of practice this season, led Royal with 16 kills and had three stuff blocks.

Ferguson estimates that the talented opposite hitter has recovered to only 75% of his pre-injury level, and is excited by the prospect of having an improving Olsen in the lineup.

“It’s really changed what our team looks like,” Ferguson said. “Put (6-5) Garrison (Chaffee) or (6-5) Eric (Carlsen) next to Matt, and it’s awfully hard for opponents to hit around them.”

“Give us another two weeks and we’re going to be dynamite.”

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Charlie can: Talk about good theater.

Rio Mesa’s Charlie Boch stepped to the plate in the bottom of the eighth inning in a key Channel League game Friday.

The game matched the first-place Spartans against Ventura, one of three league teams that trailed Rio Mesa by one game.

The bases were loaded and Boch’s team trailed by three runs. Heroics were needed--and nearly delivered when Boch smoked a 2-and-1 fastball over the left field fence. But the ball curved foul by about 10 feet.

“The wind blows from left to right, and I figured the wind might help keep it fair,” Rio Mesa Coach Rich Doran said. “But it just kept hooking.”

The count was 2 and 2. Boch then let the next pitch--a very close pitch--go by.

“I surprised myself that I let it go,” Boch said. “I guess I was trying to settle down after that first hit. I think the umpire wanted to see a little battle going on there too.”

Full count.

The payoff pitch. Boch swings at a fastball on the outside corner.

“I just put everything into it,” Boch said. “I was either going to go down swinging, or . . . well, I was going to go down swinging.”

He drove it over the right field fence for a grand slam.

“Darned if that wind didn’t help us out on the slam,” Doran said.

And darned if it wasn’t Boch who had the winning hit. The junior outfielder has been on a tear.

In his last three games, he has 11 runs batted in, five runs scored and two home runs. “If we had to have somebody up, we’re happy it was him,” Doran said.

The victory kept Rio Mesa, winners of six consecutive games, in first place in the conference and dropped Ventura two games back.

“I felt ecstatic,” Boch said. “It was an unbelievable feeling.”

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Singing the blues: He’s probably accused umpires of making the same mistake, but El Camino Real baseball Coach Mike Maio made a call too soon.

After a scheduled game Tuesday against Reseda was postponed twice, Maio wanted to play it Friday. He was told Friday morning by the San Fernando Valley umpires assn. that no umpires were available, so he reluctantly postponed the game again, until next Friday.

“It’s frustrating because we played pretty good Thursday (a 10-1 victory over Reseda), and we wanted to keep things going,” Maio said.

However, umpires were found by game time and they showed up . . . to an empty field.

Next time there should be no snafu. “We called the umpires,” Maio said. “We know they’re free next Friday.”