Foothill Beats Villa Park, Wins Century League Title

Foothill wasn’t considered the team to beat going into the Century League boys’ volleyball season. Maybe that’s why no team has done it.

The Knights kept their league record perfect and clinched the title after rallying for a 10-15, 14-16, 15-6, 15-11, 15-11 victory over Villa Park Tuesday at Foothill.

Villa Park (8-7, 6-3) was the clear favorite to win the league title a month ago. The Spartans returned five starters from last season’s team, which went undefeated in the regular season and won the school’s first league championship. But Villa Park was swept by the Knights in the first meeting, then lost to Orange last week.

After Villa Park won the first two games in its rematch with the Knights, Foothill Coach Rich Polk thought it was going to be an early exit for his team.

“I thought it was over,” he said. “They were playing hard and Erick [Helenihi] does a great job dominating a game. They were getting the ball to him early, so I was worried.”

Foothill (10-3, 9-0) stayed alive by scoring 10 of the last 11 points in the third game, and the last five in the fourth.

With the score tied, 9-9, in the final game, the Knights scored two consecutive points on an off-speed kill by Chris Cachet and Josh Reyes’ block against Eric Ostrom.

Matt Ledford then scored on two consecutive kills to make it 13-10, and later Ledford finished the match with a kill off the block of John Smith.