Falcons win tiebreaker to qualify for Gold Division

LA CRESCENTA — Without even setting foot in the Crescenta Valley High gymnasium on Friday, the Village Christian boys’ volleyball team turned Pool B of the 2012 Crescenta Valley Varsity Tournament on its ear.

The Crusaders were unable to put off an Olympic League match that had been rescheduled for Friday and were therefore unable to take their place in Pool B alongside Paraclete, Salesian and the host Falcons.

As a result, the remaining three were left to battle it out for first place and the berths in today’s Gold Division playoffs awarded to the top two teams in each of the four pools. The results came down to a tiebreaker when the trio battled to a tie in games won and Salesian got the edge with a 1.09 point differential.

“The Gold Division’s really good, there’s some good teams here and there’s going to be some wars going on tomorrow,” said Falcons Coach John Nelson, whose team will begin Gold Division play at 10:30 a.m. by virtue of its 1.00 point differential, while Paraclete (.92) begins Silver Division play at 9:30 a.m. “We played better than we did yesterday [in a Pacific League loss at Claremont], that’s the good news. The bad news is we’re still a little bit hot and cold and we’re not quite smoothing out the way we wish we were, but we’ll keep working at it and hopefully you get it firing just right when you’re in the playoffs.”

Crescenta Valley, which is currently 13-7 and 7-4 in league for third place, opened pool play Friday with an 18-25, 25-21, 25-17 win over Paraclete.

The Falcons then fell, 17-25, 26-24, 25-20, to Salesian, which lost to Paraclete, 27-25, 29-27, 14-25.

There will be a new champion crowned today, as CV’s league foe, two-time defending-champion Burroughs, is not participating.