South Pasadena High boys’ volleyball takes fifth versus La Jolla

SOUTH PASADENA — Exactly 68 possessions after the South Pasadena High boys’ volleyball team first reached match-point, the Tigers finally closed out.

In between, however, fifth-seeded La Jolla High launched an impressive rally and pushed host South Pasadena before the Tigers prevailed with a 25-21, 25-21, 25-27, 18-25, 15-7 victory in Tuesday evening’s CIF Southern California Regional Division II Championship playoffs.

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With the victory, the fourth-seeded CIF Southern Section Division III champion Tigers (29-4) advance to Thursday’s regional semifinals at 7 p.m. at top-seeded Anaheim Esperanza (28-4), which punched its ticket with a 25-18, 25-16, 25-12 win versus Venice on Tuesday. Esperanza is the reigning CIF-SS Division II champ.

“This was about sticking together as a family and pulling out a tough one,” said Tigers setter David Barker, who paced his squad with 45 assists. “La Jolla was a great team and they had more energy and focus in the third and fourth games, but we just stuck together.”

A trip to Anaheim seemed unlikely for South Pasadena after San Diego Section Division III champion La Jolla (21-15) rallied from dropping the first two games with a thrilling third-game win that preceded a fourth-game victory, 25-18, which was the most dominant win for either side prior to the fifth game.

“I asked the guys if they wanted the season to end tonight,” South Pasadena Coach Ben Diaz said. “That’s what I said after [the fourth game] and they changed energy-wise. They came out to play.”

The Tigers quickly exorcised third- or fourth-game demons by scoring four of the first five points in the fifth game behind two consecutive kills from sophomore Richard Yu, who finished with 15 kills and four blocks.

A timeout from Vikings Coach David Jones and a subsequent kill from La Jolla senior opposite Clay Jones, who led his side with 20 kills and two aces, only momentarily stunted South Pasadena’s progress, as the Tigers eventually jumped out to a 14-6 lead after an ace just inside the baseline from freshman outside hitter Max Luck (eight kills, 12 digs and three blocks).

Two possessions later, Yu closed out the victory with a kill through the block attempt of La Jolla’s Cameron Baggett and Jones, which led to a crowd mosh on the court.

“We’re a family and we were going to do our best to win,” Yu said. “We tried to block up front and make it tough for them to score.”

It appeared momentum and energy were on South Pasadena’s side late in the third game when the Tigers rallied from a 22-15 deficit with a quick 6-0 spurt and eventual 10-2 run to hit match-point, 25-24, on a defensive error from the Vikings.

Yet, Vikings playmaker Jones responded with a kill that knotted the score at 25 and two brilliant aces that delivered his team the first of two consecutive games.

“I’m proud of this team. We could have easily been blown out, but we battled South Pasadena,” David Jones said. “We don’t see teams of South Pasadena’s caliber too often in San Diego and it took us a while to get used to their play.”

South Pasadena broke up a tie at 16 in the first game with two straight points and never again allowed La Jolla to tie as Robert Adamson, who led the Tigers with 24 kills and 10 digs, finished off the game with a solo block of Jones.

In the second game, a tie at 19 was broken up with three consecutive points, including back-to-back combo blocks from Yu and Jason Qui (four blocks) to propel the Tigers to a 25-21 win.