Centaurs Spikers Defeat St. Bernard

Coming off a Cinderella season that culminated in its march to the CIF Southern Section semifinals, the Culver City High School boys volleyball squad wanted to build off that momentum and carry that into the 2011-12 season.

Despite the loss of 10 players to graduation, including three All-Ocean League selections--middle blocker Kekoa Mathews, setter Andy Aguila and outside hitter Alex Aguilera--the Centaurs had high hopes of making another magical run this spring. 

Coach Joe Manzo knows it's a long season and how you're playing at the end of the year that matters, but his young team has certainly taken its lumps so far, going a dismal 1-9 to start the schedule. However, the Centaurs have won their last two matches, including last Thursday's five-set home triumph over archrival Beverly Hills for their first league victory.

Culver City won despite spotting the Normans the first two sets. Wesley Dixon led the Centaurs' comeback with 22 kills and 20 digs while Daniel Feifer added 15 kills and 16 digs in a 16-25, 13-25, 25-17, 25-22, 15-10 win which avenged a three-set loss at Beverly Hills nine days earlier.

On March 20, Culver City snapped its six-match losing streak with a 25-20, 25-22, 27-29, 27-25 nonleague victory over visiting St. Bernard in which Dixon had 17 kills and 20 digs, Feifer had 13 kills and 17 digs and libero Chris Galang had two aces and 27 digs.

"The biggest issue here was morale," said Feifer, one of the Centaurs' two senior captains. "We're a family, but we're not really gelling as a team yet. Certain people aren't sure about themselves and because of that they affect the people around them. Hopefully as time goes on we'll start working better together and that'll lead to more wins."

The Centaurs thought they won the third set, but one referee ruled they had touched the ball four times on a match point. They made only four service errors and were bolstered by 40 assists, eight kills and seven kills from setter James Chandruang.

"We weren't taking the game too seriously and we thought we'd win easily but I guess it wasn't that easy," Dixon said. "Our team went on a lot of slumps and we need to work on being more consistent. We have a lot of first-year players, so we're not very experienced. After we play a lot of games we'll get better."

Junior Salvador De Leon agreed: "This was my first game and I'm still trying to get comfortable with these guys but they were helping me out, telling me what to do. It made it easy for me, but I still need to get in touch with these guys and communicate better."

The roster consists of six juniors and three sophomores, so it's understandable that team chemistry will take time. After opening the season with nonleague losses to El Segundo, Brentwood and Windward, the Centaurs went 1-5 in the Bronze Division at the Foothill Tournament, beating host Tustin before losing to La Salle, JSerra, Paloma Valley, Long Beach Millikan and Irvine.

"We've got a lot of new guys who have never played the game before, so we have three solid pieces in the puzzle and so we're trying to put it together by adding those extra pieces and teaching them what part of the puzzle each of them needs to be to make it work," Manzo said. "Our Libero Chris Galang is a 10th-grader who is also a soccer player and it shows in his speed, his attitude and his constant effort to get to the ball. He'll run through a wall, he'll run through bleachers, he doesn't care. He wants to get the ball for his teammates and that's a great spirit."

Culver City returns from Spring Break on April 10 with a home match against Ocean League rival Inglewood, then hosts defending league and CIF champion Santa Monica one week later.