SOUTHERN SECTION VOLLEYBALL PLAYOFFS : Kickback Pays Off for Campbell Hall

It was Tim Jensen’s first year as volleyball coach at his alma mater, and an impending first-round setback in the playoffs just wasn’t sitting well.

At the end, in a match that might have provided more excitement than Campbell Hall High’s defeat to Bishop Diego, Jensen kicked the windshield of his car.

The windshield cracked.

“I was a young coach and really frustrated,” Jensen said. “My guys saw it the next day and I said I wouldn’t fix it until they won a playoff game.”

After four years of driving around with a permanent spider web, Jensen can fix his windshield. The Vikings defeated South Pasadena in the first round of the Southern Section Division III playoffs.

The fourth-seeded Vikings (16-3) haven’t stopped winning and play in the semifinals tonight at top-seeded Santa Ynez (20-0).

“We’re on top of the world right now,” said Jensen, in his fifth year at Campbell Hall. “It’s the best feeling I’ve ever had.”

Much better than last season, when Campbell Hall bowed out in a first-round setback against Thacher, spoiling a solid regular season.

Or the four years before that, when the Vikings lost three times in the first round and failed to make the playoffs in 1993.

It’s a different athletic atmosphere at Campbell Hall, known more for its 1993-94 Southern Section Division V-AA basketball championship than anything else.

“You used to drive around campus and all you saw was kids shooting baskets and playing five-on-five basketball,” said Jensen. “The last couple of months, I’ve been driving around campus and I’ll see all the sixth- through eighth-graders rallying with a volleyball. It makes me smile.”

As do 6-foot-4 swing hitter Eric Hassan and 6-5 middle blocker Dylan Herrick, two tall reasons for the Vikings’ success.

When Hassan was a sophomore, he slammed his fist into the floor during a match against Village Christian and broke his left hand.

Bad news for the southpaw, who sat out the rest of the season. The Vikings failed to make the playoffs and Hassan struggled, socially and academically.

“I should have just stayed at home and not paid tuition,” said Hassan, who was hovering near a 1.8 grade-point average at the end of his sophomore year.

His grades, his temper and his game improved when Hassan was a junior, but the Vikings’ postseason loss to Thacher left a void.

Then came 1994-95.

Hassan, who registered a 3.4 last semester, was accepted to nine of 12 colleges he applied to and plans to play at USC next season.

His maturation closely mirrors that of the team.

“Everybody’s bonding at the right moment,” Hassan said.

In a quarterfinal victory over Cate, it was Herrick’s turn to contribute.

He turned in a 19-kill, 10-block, 10-dig performance as the Vikings won in four games.

“We just don’t want it to end,” Herrick said.

Santa Ynez, which went wire to wire as the No. 1 team in Division III, looms as a large obstacle.

George Roumain, a 6-foot-7 middle blocker who Jensen says is one of the best high school players in the nation, and 6-6 outside hitter Andy Witt will be difficult for the Vikings to stop.

But Jensen sees a weakness.

“They live and die off [Roumain and Witt],” he said. “I guarantee no one’s giving us a shot in the world . . . [but] we’re primed for the upset.”

Regardless of the outcome, Jensen still has to fulfill his guarantee. And his players won’t let him forget it.

“They keep bugging me to get [my windshield] fixed,” he said. “But we’ve been too busy worrying about keeping this thing going. I haven’t even had time to sleep.”