Lady Centaurs win first playoff game

Photo by George Laase ONE DOWN—Opposite hittFreshman Lena Johnson spikes the ball for the fifth seeded Lady Centaurs last Tuesday night as Culver City beat Christian Brethren 3-0 in the first round of the CIF playoffs.

The Culver City High School girls’ volleyball team started its quest for a CIF 3AA Divi- sion Championship on Tuesday night when they swept Brethren Christian of Huntington Beach 3-0 inside the Del Goodyear Gym on the Culver City campus. The Centaurs are now 25-6 overall and are looking to make a statement in the playoffs.

Their next game is tonight, but as of press time the game site has yet to be determined. The CIF playoffs is a hard formula to figure out.

If the Centaurs play on the road they will travel to Riverside or Apple Valley; however, if they win a coin toss they will play at home at 7 p.m. tonight. Since the team will play before Culver City News goes to press again, persons interested can call the high school to find out the time and place of their next game.

When teams play opponents that they are supposed to beat, sometimes the superior team gets bored and plays down to the competition: Culver City did not have that problem on Tuesday night.

Brethren Christian came into the game with a 12-11 record and they were the fourth best team in their league. The opponent never reached double figures in points in three games.

“I knew coming into this game that their best hitter was injured,” said Culver City head Joe Manzo. “I felt really feel bad for them but we were bigger and stronger than they were so I expected us to win. This game gave us the opportunity to work on small things that we are not doing well.”

“Culver City has a very good team and they have some great servers,” said Brethren Christian coach Larry Overton said. “I think they have an opportunity to go a long way in the playoffs.”

Culver City’s coach hopes the girls can stay focused and win the title for the school, the community and especially for the seniors.

“The seniors have worked so hard for four years so it would be nice to see them walk away with a championship,” Manzo said. “It’s going to be a hard road and it’s not an easy road to climb to the top but if we take it one game at a time we have a chance.”

Senior Armani Moultrie thought the game on Tuesday was a little slow but the Centaurs stayed focused.

“We have to keep our level of play up,” Moultrie said. “As a senior I need to be a good leader and a good teammate. I have really enjoyed this season. We have a really strong team and we are like a family.”

Another senior who hopes to hold the championship trophy at the end of the playoffs is captain Mina Grant.

Grant is one of the best set- ters and diggers in the 3AA division.

“We work really well as a team,” Grant said. “We can go really far in the playoffs if we put our minds to it. We all want to win.”