Sports
Falcons progress in host tournament
Volleyball: Quartz Hill crowned champs while Falcons take sixth place in CV Varsity tourney.
By Gabriel Rizk
LA CRESCENTA — Brentwood High once again had Crescenta Valley’s number on Saturday, defeating the Falcons boys’ volleyball team, 25-18, 25-20, in the Gold playoff bracket fifth-place match of the Crescenta Valley Varsity Tournament.
The Falcons got five kills from Nico Alegria and two kills and an ace from Anthony Shapiro, but couldn’t fend off the second sweep in as many days at the hands of the Eagles, who defeated Crescenta Valley, 27-25, 25-19 in Friday’s pool-play round.
Earlier in the day, the Falcons swept Village Christian, 29-27, 25-23, after falling, 25-22, in a close one-game match with eventual tournament champion Quartz Hill in the opening round of the playoffs.
“It’s kind of like a continuation of [Friday],” Crescenta Valley Coach John Nelson said. “We’re getting better game by game, but we did some things against Quartz Hill that are showing signs that we’re starting to figure it out.”
Crescenta Valley’s final match with Brentwood got off to a rocky start, with the Eagles building an 11-3 lead on an early seven-point service run.
The Falcons were never really able to get closer than five or six points away for the rest of the game, but opened the second game with two kills by Alegria and an ace by Wes Pinero to take a 3-1 lead.
Brentwood took the lead at 12-11, however, and despite tying the game up three more times, the Falcons would not lead again.
After Crescenta Valley had misfired on its final three serves against Quartz Hill, eight service errors against Brentwood tripped up the Falcons again.
“We get service aces at critical times too, so that’s the nature of what we do,” Nelson said. “We’re gonna serve aggressively and sometimes it hurts you and sometimes it doesn’t.
“You just hope that most of the time, you’re getting the advantage out of it. Occasionally it comes back and gets you, but at this time if the year you hope that’s very rare.”
St. Francis closed out its day in the Silver playoff bracket on Saturday with a 25-19, 14-25, 15-11 win over Burbank in the seventh-place game.
It was the only win in the two-day tournament for the Golden Knights, who began play on Friday with just seven players in uniform and saw that number dwindle down to six when opposite hitter T.J. Parris suffered an ankle injury in the opening match on Saturday.
Erik Oberhammer had 25 assists for St. Francis in three matches on Saturday, while Danny Valdez recorded 16 kills on the day.
Brandon Recker added seven kills and four aces during Saturday’s matches, which included losses to Los Altos, 25-14, and L.A. Baptist, 25-19, 25-20.
The Falcons got five kills from Nico Alegria and two kills and an ace from Anthony Shapiro, but couldn’t fend off the second sweep in as many days at the hands of the Eagles, who defeated Crescenta Valley, 27-25, 25-19 in Friday’s pool-play round.
Earlier in the day, the Falcons swept Village Christian, 29-27, 25-23, after falling, 25-22, in a close one-game match with eventual tournament champion Quartz Hill in the opening round of the playoffs.
“It’s kind of like a continuation of [Friday],” Crescenta Valley Coach John Nelson said. “We’re getting better game by game, but we did some things against Quartz Hill that are showing signs that we’re starting to figure it out.”
Crescenta Valley’s final match with Brentwood got off to a rocky start, with the Eagles building an 11-3 lead on an early seven-point service run.
The Falcons were never really able to get closer than five or six points away for the rest of the game, but opened the second game with two kills by Alegria and an ace by Wes Pinero to take a 3-1 lead.
Brentwood took the lead at 12-11, however, and despite tying the game up three more times, the Falcons would not lead again.
After Crescenta Valley had misfired on its final three serves against Quartz Hill, eight service errors against Brentwood tripped up the Falcons again.
“We get service aces at critical times too, so that’s the nature of what we do,” Nelson said. “We’re gonna serve aggressively and sometimes it hurts you and sometimes it doesn’t.
“You just hope that most of the time, you’re getting the advantage out of it. Occasionally it comes back and gets you, but at this time if the year you hope that’s very rare.”
St. Francis closed out its day in the Silver playoff bracket on Saturday with a 25-19, 14-25, 15-11 win over Burbank in the seventh-place game.
It was the only win in the two-day tournament for the Golden Knights, who began play on Friday with just seven players in uniform and saw that number dwindle down to six when opposite hitter T.J. Parris suffered an ankle injury in the opening match on Saturday.
Erik Oberhammer had 25 assists for St. Francis in three matches on Saturday, while Danny Valdez recorded 16 kills on the day.
Brandon Recker added seven kills and four aces during Saturday’s matches, which included losses to Los Altos, 25-14, and L.A. Baptist, 25-19, 25-20.
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