Harvard Seems to Be Clueless, Falls to Loyola

Where was Angela Lansbury? Hercule Poirot? The Hardy Boys? Encyclopedia Brown?

Somebody needed to solve the mystery of the Harvard-Westlake boys’ volleyball team, which looked as stunning as it did sketchy during a Mission League match against Loyola on Tuesday night.

Loyola rolled to a 15-7, 15-5, 6-15, 15-7 victory and reversed a three-match losing streak against Harvard-Westlake that began two years ago.

The Wolverines (3-2, 1-1 in league play) did nothing right in the first two games, drilling serves into the net and shanking serve receives.

Who were these guys?

“I don’t know who they were and I don’t want them to come back,” Harvard-Westlake middle blocker Trevor Julian said. “It wasn’t our team.”

Ranked No. 3 in Southern Section Division I, Loyola looked like a complete unit and brought back a memory or two of its 1995 team, which won the Division I title.

Don Killian, who has committed to Pepperdine, delivered 23 kills for the Cubs (4-0, 3-0) and was one of many go-to players.

“All I do is roll the balls out and let the kids play,” said first-year Loyola Coach Bill Griebenow, more knowledgeable about volleyball than he pretends to be.

Griebenow was a setter on the 1964 U.S. Olympic team and his son, Brent, started last year for Mira Costa, the team that eliminated Harvard-Westlake in the Division I semifinals before winning the title.

Griebenow knew that triple-blocking was necessary to contain Julian, as was serving directly at the USC-bound middle blocker.

Julian had 33 kills but also had 16 errors.

The Wolverines barely avoided negative hitting in the first two games, with 24 kills and 22 errors, but turned it around in the third, rushing to a 9-0 lead.

“That was our team,” said Julian, who had four kills during the run. Bill Strictland jumped into the mix with four of his nine kills.

But Loyola, the last Mission League team to defeat Harvard-Westlake--in March 1995--made the fourth game its own, drawing away from an 8-7 lead.

The sideshows, including the friendship of Harvard-Westlake setter Brett Fowler and Loyola’s Dave Kohl, buddies since grade school, and the return of many Wolverine volleyball alums on Spring Break from college, were over.

The only mystery remaining is whether the April 25 rematch at Loyola will produce the same result.

“We’re already looking forward to it,” Julian said. “We know we can beat them. We know it.”