Artists, Knights meet tonight in quarterfinals

Mike Sciacca

For the past two years, the quarterfinal round has proven to be a

rough patch in the CIF Southern Section playoffs for the Laguna Beach

High boys’ volleyball team.

Tonight at 7 p.m. at Dugger Gym, the Artists will get another chance

to clear that hump as they take on visiting Bishop Montgomery High of

Torrance in a Division IV quarterfinal showdown.

A victory by Laguna Beach would put the Artists in the semifinal round

for the first time since the 1999 season, when they advanced to the

championship match.

“We’re playing really well right now and I was proud of the way our

kids battled back last night,” Laguna Beach coach Shawn Patchell said

following Tuesday’s 15-12, 15-7, 15-9 second round victory at San Marino.

The Artists had to battle a bit in Tuesday’s opening game, but they

displayed enough poise on the road to stage a nice comeback to claim a

15-12 win.

Patchell used just nine players to finish a match that lasted just

over an hour.

Matt Anderson led the Artists with 20 kills, Trey Chapel and Mike

Chiaverini each finished with 10, and Reid Anderson came up with nine.

Senior setter Ben Dwyer contributed 50 set assists.

Laguna Beach will be meeting a Bishop Montgomery team that improved to

19-3 by defeating the Artists’ Pacific Coast League rival, Costa Mesa, on

Tuesday.

“Bishop Montgomery is a good, well-rounded team,” Patchell said.

Laguna Beach began the school’s 29th overall appearance in the CIF

playoffs last Friday with an easy 15-0, 15-8, 15-5 win over visiting

Orange Lutheran.

The first game was over barely midway through the first rotation as

the Artists took advantage of numerous, unforced errors by the Lancers to

post a 15-0 win. The second game featured an all-senior lineup while the

third game, which ended the match, mostly featured the underclassmen.

Nineteen players saw action in a match that didn’t even last one hour.

Matt Anderson led all players with 10 kills followed by Chapel and

Spencer Samuelian each with six.

Dwyer collected 16 set assists and Nick Aronoff had nine.

A key for the Artists in their game No. 2 win was Samuelian’s six

service aces that allowed Laguna Beach to overcome an 8-7 deficit and

score a 15-8 victory.