The Centaur boys’ volleyball team’s amazing season will continue when they battle Temecula Prep for the Division 6 CIF Championship on Saturday, May 16, noon at Cerritos College in Norwalk. The volleyball team will be one of five Culver City High School teams competing in the prestigious CIF playoffs. Girls and boys track and field, baseball and softball will all be on the main stage of high school sports.
Although five teams will be playing this weekend only one team will be trying to win a CIF championship, that’s boys’ volleyball. What makes this story so remarkable is the Centaurs played only two home games the whole season because the Culver City gym was under construction due to the November rains.
They played 27 games out of 29 on the road. They go into the championship game with an incredible record of 22-7. To make it to the final they had to win four playoff games and two of those games were at home inside the high school gym. The fourth playoff game was Saturday, May 9, at home against Temecula Valley. They won that game 3-1 in front of an enthusiastic home crowd.
“Today these kids had a determination to come out here and do what they had to do to win the match,” said head coach Joe Manzo after the game. “That’s two wins on our home court. These kids played against tough competition on the road all year.”
The heart and soul of the team is senior Casey Brennan. Brennan talked about the win last Saturday. “It feels great. I thought this was going to be my last game, but we pulled it off. I love this team and I am so happy to be going to the championship.”
The other Centaur teams hoping to make it to the championship game are baseball and softball. The girls’ softball team will play a home game on Friday against Temecula Prep at 3:15 p.m. The Lady Centaurs start the playoffs with a record of 7-14 overall and 4-2 in league play. Temecula Prep is 13-10 and 10-2 in league play.
The baseball team begins its quest for a CIF championship when they travel to Valley Christian High School on Friday for a 3:15 p.m. game. The team played some tough opponents at the beginning of the season hoping that schedule would get them ready for the playoffs. They are 12-15-1 overall and 6-1 in league play. Valley Christian is 15-10 overall and 6-6 in league play.
The track teams qualified several runners and a long jumper for the CIF Division 2 Finals, but they don’t have enough athletes to win a boys or girls championship. The girls 4×100 relay team ran the fastest qualifying time with a clocking of 46.68. The team of Nadhari Goodwin, Gianni Jones, Paris Jackson and Aliza Rush ran one of the fastest times in school history. Rush also placed second in the 100 and 200 meters. Also, the girls 4×400 relay team qualified for the finals.
For the boys track team Jonah Givens placed third in the long jump and the boys 4×100 relay team of Kaiden Patterson, Givens, Derrick Huezo Jr. and Noah Cunningham placed seventh with a time of 42.10. The boys 4×400 relay team also made it to the finals.
