This is a gigantic week for Culver City spring sports. The boys’ volleyball team starts the CIF playoffs and the boys and girls track and field teams compete in the CIF preliminaries. The baseball team battles Santa Monica for first place in the Ocean league and the girls’ softball team is fighting to get into the playoffs.
The Ocean League champion volleyball team played its first playoff game on Tuesday, May 13 against Oxnard, winning and advancing to the next round in a sweep, 25-15, 25-13 and 25-16.
With the win, the Centaurs moved on to the next round against Paloma Valley for a playoff-road game tonight at 7 p.m.
The girls and boys track and field teams will travel to Moorpark High School this Saturday for the CIF Division II prelims. The field events start at 11 a.m. and the running events start at Noon. The last three weeks the Centaurs have proven that they are ready for the tough competition in the CIF preliminaries since Culver City recorded some of its best times and marks against Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Hawthorne, Inglewood and in the Ocean League finals last week.
The girls’ team is led by seniors Kyndahl Carter, Sage Sims-Bleser and junior Amber Wacker. Carter took first place in four events last week at the league finals. She won the 100 meters, 100 meter hurdles, 300 meter hurdles and the 400 meter relay.
“I just try to impress my coach to let him know that he has trained us well,” said Carter after winning the 100 meter hurdles last week. “I want him to know that he has athletes that can compete at a high level.”
Wacker ran on two winning relay teams and placed third in the 100 meter dash in the league finals. Sims-Bleser won the 800 meters and ran on the first place 1600 meter relay team. The girls are coach by former USC star Rayfield Beaton.
The boys are led by senior Kevin Beacham and junior Jerrett Anderson. Beacham, who plays football and basketball, won the long jump and the triple jump and ran on two second place relay teams in the league finals. “I would like to jump about 24 feet and win the long jump in CIF,” said Beacham who is one of the best long jumpers in the state
Anderson finished second in four events last week in the league finals. He placed second in the 200, 400 and both relays. The boys’ team is coached by Jahmal Wright.
The baseball team plays its two biggest games of the year this week when they lock horns with Santa Monica for the Ocean League championship. The Centaurs traveled to Santa Monica last Tuesday and they return home today for a 3:15 game against Santa Monica.
“This is the fifth year in a row that it has come down to the winner of the Culver City and Santa Monica series will be the league champions,” coach Rick Prieto said. “Our confidence is good right now. Our team believes that they can win every game that they play.”
The Culver City baseball team is 17-8 overall and 7-1 in the Ocean league. Santa Monica is 23-4 and 8-0 and is one of the top ranked teams in Southern California.
The junior varsity baseball team lost to Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks 7-2 last Friday at Culver City. It was their first loss in three weeks. Notre Dame’s star pitcher, DeAndre Carter limited the Centaurs to four hits in five innings.
“This was the best team we have seen at this level,” Centaur head coach George Aceves said. “But I am really proud of the way we played.”
The girls’ softball team will need to win at least one of their final two games of the regular season to advance to the CIF playoffs. They traveled to Beverly Hills last Tuesday and they host Santa Monica today at 3:15 p.m. The Centaurs are 12-8 overall and 5-3 in the Ocean League and Santa Monica is 16-8 and 8-0.
“Imani Bell has really stepped up for us on the pitchers mound,” said coach John Sargent, “and Lisa Kamba continues to swing the bat well.”
In pro sports the Clippers won one of the most important games in franchise history last Sunday when they came back from a 22-point deficit to beat Oklahoma City 101-99. Clipper coach Doc Rivers used a small lineup in the fourth quarter to go around and through the Thunder defense. Chris Paul, Darren Collision, Jamal Crawford, Danny Granger and Blake Griffin were outstanding in the fourth quarter but the real heroes were the 19,365 fans at the Staples Center. That was the loudest fan support the Clippers have ever had dating back to their Sports Arena days.
“If we played that game anywhere else I don’t think we would have won,” said Crawford who high fived the fans after the game. “The crowd was huge. They deserve just as much credit as anybody. They gave us energy and we did a good job of feeding off of the crowd.”
Now the Clippers are in a best of three game series with the Thunder. They played last Tuesday night in Oklahoma and they return home tonight for game six.
