The Culver City High boys volleyball team easily defeated struggling Inglewood on May 6 in the Centaurs’ final match before the CIF-Division III playoffs, which began this week.
Culver City (9-7) visited Norwalk (16-10), the second-place finisher out of the Suburban League, on Tuesday, May 11 in the opening round of Toyota boys volleyball championships. The winner of that match will today play the winner of the Palmdale/Cypress match that also took place Tuesday.
The Centaurs clinched second place in the Ocean League, and a spot in the CIF postseason, by defeating host and league rival Beverly Hills two weeks ago in four games, 25-22, 25-21, 23-25, 25-22.
The games were all close, although the third game saw the Normans lead by as many as nine points (16-7) before the Centaurs attempted to rally but fell short.
The fourth game saw Culver City (4-2 in Ocean League play) start fast with a 9-5 lead, but Beverly Hills rallied to grab a 14-9 advantage. From there the Centaurs, behind junior middle blocker Andy Aguila and junior outside hitter Alex Aguilera, took control to turn things around and pull out the game and the match.
“Beverly Hills got a lot better than when we played them the previous time,” Culver City head coach Leilini Kamahouhoa said. “We played really good defense and a lot better than they did.”
The Centaurs had previously swept the Normans on April 20 in Culver City’s league opener.
Aguila led the Centaurs with 20 kills and eight blocks. Aguilera had 13 kills.
Setter Ken Nakagawa tallied 33 assists, and outside hitter-middle blocker Matt Kekoa totaled 16 digs and
six kills.
