Centaurs Spikers Sweep Beverly Hills

No matter what the sport, there is no more heated rivalry in the Ocean
League than that between Culver City and Beverly Hills. In girls volleyball, however, the Centaurs have the dominant program right now, as they proved in a 25-22, 25-17, 25-14 home victory last Thursday.

Beverly Hills (2-5-0 overall, 2-1-0) began the match psyched and ready, taking a 9-2 lead that forced Culver City Coach Chris Fraijo to call an early timeout to steady his team. The Centaurs responded with a 10-2 run and went on to win the opening set 25-22.

"We are going to use this win to motivate ourselves," Fraijo said. "I understood that Beverly Hills is in a rebuilding year. So I'm happy we swept them."

Fraijo said before the match that his team had emphasized ball handling, serve situations, defense and free balls in practice and it showed on the court against the Normans. Culver City won the last two sets and the lopsided scores allowed Fraijo to give his reserves valuable game experience. Mariah Watson, Monica Patton and Taylor Selfridge each played well coming off the bench.

“Culver City always has a strong program," Normans Coach Marla Weiss said before the match. "They will have some offensive power, they play good defense, they are tough mentally and they fight."

Senior Tiara Wallace led all hitters with 14 kills, senior setter Torrey Mitsunaga had 12 assists and libero Mychelle Hale had 21 service receptions and only four errors for Culver City (3-6-1, 3-0-1). Fraijo named Selfridge his MaxPreps team player of the week and praised the play of Patton, a sophomore setter who had 13 assists.

Next week, the Centaurs host Morningside (1-3-1, 0-2-0) before traveling to Santa Monica to try to avenge their only Ocean League loss.