A date with a champion

Mike Sciacca

In order to be the best, a team needs to beat the best.

Tonight at 7, the Laguna Beach High boys’ volleyball team will get

the chance to unseat Valencia of Valencia as the CIF-Southern Section

Division II champion when the Breakers travel north to face the

three-time defending champions on their home court.

Laguna (18-9) advanced to tonight’s quarterfinal match by virtue

of a 25-22, 25-16, 25-17 second-round sweep Tuesday of visiting Santa

Ynez.

Laguna advances to the quarterfinals for the 25th time in the

32-year history of the CIF boys’ volleyball playoffs.

On that same night, Valencia opened the playoffs with a 25-21,

25-15, 25-12 sweep of Laguna’s Pacific Coast League rival,

University.

Both Laguna and Valencia, champion of the Foothill League, had a

first-round bye.

Valencia, ranked first in the Division II poll throughout most of

the regular season, is the division’s No. 4 seed.

Laguna, meanwhile, is seeded fifth.

“We played solid volleyball,” Laguna coach Lance Stewart said of

his team’s performance Tuesday against Santa Ynez. “We sided out

really well but I wasn’t particularly pleased with our defense.

“We have to play much better if we hope to get past the next

round. We have to serve tougher than we did tonight and make more

defensive plays, if we hope to beat Valencia.”

In its first two games against Santa Ynez, champion of the Los

Padres league, Laguna had to break away from ties to earn wins.

The Breakers and Pirates were tied at 13-13 in game No. 1 before

Laguna ended up with a three-point win, and Laguna outscored the

Pirates, 13-4, in the second game to end a 12-12 deadlock.

The teams were tied early at 7-7 in the third game before the

Breakers coasted to the victory.

Last year, Laguna rallied from two games down to win a

quarterfinal match at Santa Ynez.

The Breakers now lead the overall series with the Pirates, 4-3.

Santa Ynez, which has not lost a league game in 14 years, finished

its year at 14-7.

The Pirates, coached by San Clemente High alumnus Chip Fenenga,

have the best overall win/loss playoff record at 48-6.

“Overall, I was pleased with our play,” Stewart said. “I thought

Blair Bigelow played a real solid game in the middle, and I thought

Ivan (Kovacevic) also had a strong game.”

Bigelow finished with six kills, Kovacevic had 10 kills and Luke

Morris led the Breakers with 14 kills.

At the CIF track and field preliminaries, the Laguna program

continued to roll through CIF.

The Breakers qualified eight of the 13 competitors it took to the

prelims, for Saturday’s CIF finals at Cerritos College in Norwalk.

The top nine finishers in each running and field event at the

prelims advanced to Saturday’s finals.

Laguna qualified both Shane Riehl and Jeremy Eaton in the 800,

both Sean Fuszard and Aman Bhatia in the 1600, Justin Rovin in the

110 and 300 hurdles, Addison Doud in the discus, Brittany Clark in

the 100 and Alex Crawley in the 3200.

“I feel that several of these athletes have a good shot at being

individual CIF champs in their events,” Laguna boys’ coach Dave

Brobeck said. “We are very happy with the steady progress. We’re on a

roll.”

At the CIF swimming and diving finals, Laguna athletes put on

outstanding performances at the Division II competition at Belmont

Plaza in Long Beach.

Junior Adam Kaplan swam a 21.93 and finished in third place in the

boys’ 50-yard freestyle. Teammate Ryan Fair, a senior, went 22.68 and

placed 13th, overall.

Kaplan and Fair also had qualified for the finals in the

100-freestyle.

The two also swam a leg on Laguna’s 200-free relay team that

finished in third place in a time of 1:29.30. Senior Trevor Frimond

swam the first leg and sophomore Cameron Brinkman the third leg for

the Breakers.

Kaplan and Fair were second and anchor legs on Laguna’s 400-free

relay team that went 49.60 and finished in 15th place. Senior Shawn

Pfendler swam the lead leg and Frimond swam the third leg.

Pfendler had also qualified for the boys’ 100-yard backstroke.

“The guys worked really hard this season,” Laguna coach Rick McKee

said. “It probably was one of the best swim seasons for a boys’ team

in Laguna history. I think the guys broke seven school records

throughout the course of the season.

“The girls also had success this year and dropped their times. It

was a good season for both sides.”