Boys’ Volleyball Preview: La Cañada aims for playoff run in rebuilding year
Many of the La Cañada High boys’ volleyball players know what it’s like to win just three games over the course of the season.
With new coach Laura Browder at the helm and plenty of returning underclassmen, the Spartans look to turn things around and forget last season’s woes.
Flintridge Prep and St. Francis advanced to the postseason, with Flintridge Prep reaching the semifinals last season.
Here is a closer look at the teams.
LA CAÑADA
“My expectations this season is to build a culture of excellence — a culture of excellence that reminds itself that we play to win every game and to get back into that competitive mindset,” Browder said.
Browder, who took over the girls’ program in the fall after a successful run at Southlands Christian, hopes for a change of fortune for a boys’ program that finished last season with a 3-20 record and a 2-6 league mark for fourth place in the Rio Hondo League ahead of winless Gabrielino.
Browder enters her first year after having coaching the San Gabriel Elite 16 boys’ team since 2019. As a coach at Southlands Christian, Browder turned a struggling program into back-to-back CIF playoff quarterfinal appearances in Division X in 2016 and in Division IX in 2017.
“I really, really feel like this is a rebuilding year, but I feel like it’s going to be a solid year and it could really set great foundation for the next few years,” Browder said. “My expectations are that we make it to playoffs. I don’t know if we’ll win league or not — obviously that is the goal — but I definitely see us finishing in third place or higher.
“If we get into playoffs, I really believe that we can do a deep CIF run.
The Spartans will have just three seniors, setter Chris Clarke, middle blocker Cade Saks and versatile player Ethan Cohen.
La Cañada junior Sam Salit will join Clarke at setter, with the latter capable of playing opposite alongside sophomore Jacob Nies.
The Spartans will have a solid partnership in outside hitters with Nies and sophomore Korbin Christoph.
Spartans sophomore Adam Jensen will serve as starting libero, adding versatility in that position. At outside hitter is sophomore Chase Lin.
“I figure it comes down to who shows up and who executes,” said Browder of league competition. “That was dead set our focus — to get into playoffs.”
FLINTRIDGE PREP
The Rebels are coming off a season in which they went 25-5, 8-0 for first place in the Prep League. Flintridge Prep suffered a five-set road loss to Windward in a CIF Southern Section Division IV semifinal match, thus denying it a trip to a championship match for the first time in program history.
The Rebels look to learn from their experience in their quest to win an eighth straight league title under coach Sean Beattie.
“We made a deep run last season and that will serve as a great experience for the guys coming back,” Beattie said. “We’re looking OK, but we pretty much graduated everybody that contributed for about 95% of our kills last season. So, we have some big shoes to fill.
“We do have a good core coming back and we’ll look to grow together throughout the season. We might take some lumps. However, we feel like we can win another league title.”
Flintridge Prep will be anchored by senior libero Kristofer Chang, senior outside hitter/middle blocker Cole Barnard, sophomore setter Jake Woo and sophomore outside hitter Sean Mealey.
ST. FRANCIS
A season ago, St. Francis went 17-11, 3-3 in the Mission League for fourth place before succumbing to host Hart in a Division II wild-card match.
Since then, the Golden Knights have looked to put together a stable rotation to help them ascend in league and earn a return trip to the postseason under coach Mark Frazee.
“We don’t quite have the experience that we’ve had the last couple of seasons, but I think we’ll be OK,” Frazee said. “We definitely want to move up in our league and we’ll be playing in a couple of tough tournaments to help us get ready for league.
“We have some returners, but there’s an opportunity for other players to step up and give us a real good mix of talent.”
St. Francis will be paced by senior outside hitter Oliver Taylor, senior setter Guz Maltzan, junior middle blockers Zack Ferry and Andrew Johnson, junior outside hitter Andrew Choi and sophomore libero Robby Nardoni.