La Cañada, Flintridge Sacred Heart volleyball nab playoff bids
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There was one team old, one team with something new and one team blue when the CIF Southern Section office released its girls’ volleyball playoff pairings Thursday afternoon.
The city of La Cañada qualified two of its three squads to the postseason with stalwart Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy making its sixth straight appearance and La Cañada High hosting its first match in three years.
On the flip side, Flintridge Prep was not selected for an at-large berth.
Only one team will be home in Tuesday’s first round and that’s La Cañada (20-6), as the newly christened Rio Hondo League champion will host Pacific League third-place finisher Burbank (17-6-1) on Tuesday.
The contest is scheduled tentatively for 7 p.m. though Spartans coach Chris Sullivan hinted that La Cañada would be interested in moving to an earlier time.
As for the contest itself, Sullivan was looking forward to Tuesday.
“It’s definitely special,” he said. “It’s been a number of years since we’ve had this opportunity. The girls are excited about that.
“Hopefully we’ll get fans out there with Halloween going on.”
La Cañada was in the postseason last year and fell at Lakewood St. Joseph, 25-12, 25-21, 25-23 in the first round of the Division III playoffs.
The Spartans enter on a roll, having won seven of eight contests with the lone blemish a 2-0 loss to Division I Flintridge Sacred Heart in the championship match of Saturday’s Crescenta Valley Tournament.
Conversely, La Cañada faces a somewhat struggling Burbank squad that opened the season winning 10 straight.
Since that start, the Bulldogs are 7-6-1 and dropped their last contest to archrival Burroughs, 3-1, on Tuesday.
A Spartans’ win would send La Cañada into the second round against Pacific View League champ Rio Mesa (19-11) or PAC-8 third-place squad San Luis Obispo (17-13) on Thursday.
At one point this season, a proud Flintridge Sacred Heart volleyball program was 5-12 and in the midst of a seven-match losing streak capped by a 3-2 loss to city rival La Cañada on Oct. 7.
Since then, the Tologs finished with an incredible 15-1 run that produced a 20-13 record, marking the fifth straight season Flintridge Sacred Heart has won 20 matches.
During that period, Flintridge Sacred Heart (20-13) won two tournaments (SoCal Invitational and Crescenta Valley), defeated Mission League third-place Alemany and only lost to the league’s runner-up Harvard-Westlake.
The Tologs finished fourth in league, grabbed a Division I at-large berth and will travel to No. 5-ranked Redondo Union (30-4) on Tuesday for a 7 p.m. match.
Flintridge Sacred Heart has advanced past the first round in three of the last five playoff appearances, including when the squad reached the second round last season.
Redondo Union, though, is certainly a formidable foe and already defeated the Tologs, 2-0, in the Las Vegas Durango Classic on Sept. 15.
Should Flintridge Sacred Heart win, it would face Sea View League champ Dana Hills (24-4) or South Coast League third-place finisher Trabuco Hills (9-6) on Thursday.
In terms of wins and losses, Flintridge Prep enjoyed its best season since 2009 as the team finished with a 13-10 record and fifth in the rugged Prep League.
Yet, the Rebels were not chosen for a postseason berth in Division VI and missed the postseason for an eighth straight year.
“I’m disappointed we didn’t get a spot, especially knowing the strength of our league,” Flintridge Prep coach Sean Beattie said. “Us having a better than .500 record, I thought that would be enough. Apparently CIF thought differently.
“It hurts because the girls worked hard and this was one of the few chances we’ve had in years to even be playoff eligible.”
Twitter: @campadresports
