Despite losing its final contest of the regular season, Redondo earned the top seed going into the Interscholastic Beach Volleyball League (IBVL) playoffs that begin Wednesday, Oct. 7 at Dockweiler State Beach.
Each school fields three teams with the school winning at least two games declared the winner of the match.
With three varsity starters missing due to SAT testing last Saturday, Redondo entered the final day of the regular season facing crucial matches with Notre Dame and Mira Costa.
Juniors Jake Ernst and Cinjun Coe and sophomore Shane Murray admirably filled the vacancies. After sweeping Notre Dame, the Sea Hawks fell to Mira Costa 2-1, putting the rival schools with identical 9-1 records in the Bay Division.
Based on its performance this season, Redondo retained its No. 1 ranking among the 24 varsity teams while Mira Costa enters the IBVL playoffs seeded third behind Saddleback Valley Christian.
Redondo opens the playoffs with a match against the Ocean Division’s No. 3 team Viewpoint (2-8) to be held Wednesday at 5 p.m. at Dockweiler.
The Sea Hawks will be represented by Logan Glave, Lucas Lossone, Eric McCarthy, Sean-Michael Cramer, Evan Murray and Chris Dedo who hope to win Redondo’s second IBVL boys championship in three years. The Sea Hawks captured the inaugural title in 2013.
“It’s nice to enter the playoffs with the top seed, but there are a number of strong teams that can win it this year,” Redondo head coach Corey Glave said. “We will have to stay focused and be able to handle any adversity that arises during the playoffs. Clearly, it will take our best effort as a team to win a second IBVL championship. There simply are no easy matches in the playoffs.”
Following Redondo, Saddleback Valley Christian and Mira Costa in the top ten rankings are San Clemente, Santa Barbara, Westlake, Arroyo Grande, Santa Monica, Palisades Charter and San Marcos,
Mira Costa will take on Oxnard (5-5), the Riviera Division’s fourth team, at 4 p.m. Palos Verdes (6-4) finished third in the Bay Division and will take on Orange Division champion Saddleback Valley Christian (10-0) Wednesday in a 4 p.m. match at the Huntington Beach Pier.
Quarterfinals, semifinals and finals will be played Saturday, Oct. 10 at Annenberg Beach House in Santa Monica. Action begins at 9 a.m. concluding with the championship match scheduled for 12:15 p.m.
Redondo appears to be building a dynasty in IBVL boys competition. The Sea Hawk’s junior varsity team has lost only one head-to-head competition in two seasons. Its only loss came last Saturday when Cinjun Coe, Jake Ernst and Shane Murray moved up to fill varsity spots.
Keagan Benson, Justice Segura, and Kai Osagie will round out Redondo’s squad that finished the regular season 9-1 and will face Westlake (9-1) for the JV Championship at Dockweiler on Wednesday at 4 p.m. Other members of the JV team were Beau McBride, Sean Ferris, Cole Stecyk, Gavin Fure and Dean Pacheco.
Redondo won the Frosh-Soph Division with a 9-3 record.
