Bishop Montgomery Will Sit This One Out

For only the second time since 1972, when the Southern Section began holding championships in girls’ volleyball, Torrance Bishop Montgomery did not qualify for the playoffs. The only other season the Knights did not qualify was in 1981.

Bishop Montgomery, ranked No. 2 in the final Division III-A coaches’ poll, posted a 21-8 record but finished fourth in the Serra League. There were no at-large berths available in the 32-team division, which begins play today.

“That’s what happens when you’re in a really tough league, perhaps the best in the state,” said Kim Willeman, who has coached the Knights for 17 seasons. “My girls are young and this year we didn’t take care of our league games like we should have.”

Qualifying for the playoffs this year from the Serra League were Santa Ana Mater Dei, the top-seeded team in Division II-AA and its No. 1 team in the final poll, and Lakewood St. Joseph and Santa Margarita, wild-card teams in Division III-AA despite being ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in the division’s final poll.

Bishop Montgomery was the two-time defending Division III-A champion and had advanced to the state Division III quarterfinals last year after winning a state title in 2002.

-- Bob Rohwer

Football

Los Alamitos (8-1, 4-0) will play at Long Beach Veterans Stadium, its usual home field, for the first time this season tonight, when the Griffins, ranked No. 3 in the Southland by The Times, play host to Huntington Beach (4-4-1, 0-4) in a Sunset League finale.

That will be the first high school game of the season at the stadium, where synthetic turf has recently been installed. Veterans Stadium is also the home field for Long Beach Poly and Long Beach City College.

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The sixth CaliFlorida Bowl matching the top high school football seniors from California and Florida will be played for the first time in Florida. The game is set for Jan. 2 at the Orange Bowl. Forty high school players from California will be selected to participate.

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The Sunset Six League game between North Hollywood (7-2, 4-0) and visiting Canoga Park (2-7, 1-3) Friday will be televised on a tape-delay basis that night at 9 on LA36 and at 8 a.m. on Saturday on 58 (KLCS).

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Kody Kurowski, tight end and defensive end for Saugus who is the Centurions’ leading receiver and tackler, broke his leg during a 21-17 Foothill League victory over Burbank Burroughs on Friday.

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Bobby Thomas, quarterback at Lancaster (7-2), suffered a mild concussion in the final minute of a 29-13 Golden League loss to Palmdale on Friday. He probably will miss Friday’s game at Highland but should be OK for the first round of the playoffs, Coach Jeff Cortez said.

-- Martin Henderson

Fencing

Teddy Levitt, a senior at North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake, finished 12th in the saber competition and Harrison Mahaffey, a sophomore at L.A. Lycee International, was 14th Sunday at the Junior World Cup tournament in Louisville, Ky. The event featured 70 competitors from the United States and Canada.

Mahaffey, at 14, is the youngest American fencer among the top 70 in the world in the Under-19 division, where he is ranked No. 32. He is No. 8 among Americans.

Levitt, 17, will attend Stanford on a fencing scholarship.

They most recently faced off at the Los Angeles Invitational on Oct. 31 at North Hills Monroe, where Mahaffey won, 15-14, to take the Junior Division.