Breakers Win SoCal Beach Volleyball Tournament
Girls Sand Volleyball (14-0)
Peri Brennan and Piper Naess captured the Southern California High School annual pairs tournament defeating Redondo’s Ava Kirunchyk and Caitlyn Kyle 21-16 in the finals. For Brennan, it was her second title, capturing last year’s crown with Lexi McKeown, now at Florida State. Hallie Carballo/Kylee Matheson and Bella Mullin/Ella Tyus tied for fifth along with the top team for Mira Costa and Notre Dame Academy.
The IBVL playoffs begin April 29. Breakers defeated Archer on May 1 and will see Redondo Union on Saturday at 9:45 a.m. at Dockweiler Beach in Playa Del Rey. Should the Breakers prevail, they will face either Marymount or Santa Monica at 1 p.m.
Varsity vs. Archer School for Girls:
1s: Peri Brennan & Piper Naess won 21-7, 21-2
2s: Kylee Matheson & Cambria Hall won 21-10, 21-12
3s: Hallie Carballo & Jackie Strawn won 21-9, 21-5
JV kicked off their playoffs on April 30 against Fountain Valley and won 7-0:
1s: Luisa LoFranco & Lucky Hauer won 21-11, 21-15
2s: Sophie Reavis & Emma Bladergroen won 21-3, 21-6
3s: Alessandra Nitoglia & Sophie Black won 21-7, 21-15
4s: Sydney Freeman & Lucy Loughlin won 21-5, 21-11
5s: Shanti Nunn & Annabelle Kieswetter won 21-2, 21-6
4v4: LoFranco, Bladergroen, Hauer, Black won 28-15
The following day, they took a 4-3 win over Huntington Beach in the second round of the OCBVL playoffs:
1s: Sophie Reavis & Emma Bladergroen won 21-16, 17-21, 15-10
2s: Luisa LoFranco & Lucky Hauer won 21-17, 21-16
3s: Sophie Black & Lucy Loughlin lost 21-19, 14-21, 14-16
4s: Sydney Freeman & Alessandra Nitoglia won 21-17, 21-18
5s: Annabelle Kieswetter & Amelie Sadler won 21-10, 21-13
4v4: Loughlin, Reavis, Black, Bladergroen lost 16-28
Junior Varsity is now 5-4 on the season.
Baseball (15-13, 3-6)
Breakers stranded too many runners and lost their last contest of the season in a 3-1 setback at Corona del Mar (18-8-1, 5-4) on April 25. Laguna still finished with a winning record for the eleventh straight season facing their toughest competition in the program’s 81 seasons.
Final statistical leaders after 28 games:
Batting Average: .389 Kolton Freeman, .346 Cutter Clawson, .276 Eric Silva
Hits: 28 – Kolton Freeman, 27 – Cutter Clawson, 22 – Aidan Booth
Doubles: 8 – Freeman & Clawson
Triples: 1 – Freeman, Clawson, Booth, and Jeremy Hayes
Home Runs: 6 – Clawson, 4 – Freeman, 2 – Hayes
RBI’s:20 – Clawson, 18 – Freeman & Booth
Stolen Bases: 13 – Eric Silva
ERA: 2.30 – Clawson (6-4)
Strikeouts: 61 – Clawson, 43 – Silva, 30 – Witteman & Hougenauer
Boys Golf (4-11, 0-6)
Laguna’s last Wave League match was played on April 25 at Ben Brown’s, par 32. Marina (5-13, 2-4) won the match by the score of 189-200 with the medalist Justin Quan from Marina who shot 34 (+2).
Scores for Laguna: Gus Morck – 38, Chase Gioffredi – 39, Tai Diggins – 39, Kyle Shaw – 41, Aiden Svenson – 43, Trent Ralston – 5.
The Sunset Wave League individual finals were held April 29-30 in Long Beach on the par 72 Skylinks course. The top six golfers advance to the SSCIF individual tournament. Laguna’s top golfer finished seventh. Each team brought six players with the top 12 golfers of the 24 entered advancing to the final round. The top 12 scores were:
Sky Nam, Los Alamitos – 152, Nicholas Gomez, Fountain Valley – 153, Jeff Proodian, Marina – 156
Josh Vo, Fountain Valley – 156, Justin Quan, Marina – 158, Vedant Baiswar, Fountain Valley – 158
Gus Morck, Laguna Beach – 160, Zach Iwashita, Los Alamitos – 160, Jonathan Nguyen, Fountain Valley – 162
Brayden Gratzer, Marina – 165, Micguire Monson, Los Alamitos – 171, Kevin Hinh, Fountain Valley – 177
Lacrosse
Laguna Boys (1-12, 0-5) dropped an 8-2 contest to Orange Lutheran on April 26 and close out their season this past week with Crean and Sage Hill. The girls team (0-14, 0-4) also concluded this past week.
Softball (7-13, 1-8)
Season concluded on April 23. Newport won the league with an 8-1 record followed by Fountain Valley (6-3) Corona del Mar (3-6) and Laguna.
Swimming
Sunset Wave League finals were held on April 25 at Golden West College and the girl’s medley relay teams were both disqualified in the first event of the finals, creating a deficit the Breakers were unable to overcome as Edison edged the Breakers 363 to 339 for the crown. Huntington Beach was third at 257, Marina fourth at 182.
If the Laguna medley relay squads had finished last, they would have earned enough points for the team to win the Wave League title. Laguna winners:
50 Free – Claire Kelly 24.42
200 Free Relay – Claire Kelly, Molly Renner, Jessie Rose, Ella Judd 1:39.06
400 Free Relay – Judd, Renner-Kelly-Rose 3:34.90
On the boys side, Edison won the team title with 394.5 points, Huntington was second at 386.50 and Laguna third at 231.50. Breakers lone winner was Colton Gregory with a 21.87 in the 50 free. In the Sunset Conference diving competition, Sahil Das was the league Boys MVP but Marina won both the boys and girls team titles.
The CIF D1 Diving finals were held on April 30 at Riverside City College, with Das finishing third. The swimming finals are this weekend with the Breakers now competing in Division 1.
Boys Tennis (9-9, 4-2)
Laguna, last year’s D4 champs, traveled to Mark Keppel High School in Alhambra in the opening D3 playoffs and came home with a 14-4 victory over the Aztecs. Laguna won six doubles and eight doubles matches in the rout. Sweeps were earned by doubles teams Casey Boehm/Matthew Doung and Kyle Herkins/Diego Tellez.
Breakers host Redlands East Valley on May 3. Laguna is in their 85th season and are now 94-42 all time in playoff matches.
Final D3 Poll: 1 – Orange Lutheran, 2 – Mater Dei, 3 – Trabuco Hills, 4 – Aliso Niguel, 5 – Laguna Beach, 6 – San Juan Hills, 7 – Simi Valley, 8 – Carpinteria, 9 – Long Beach Poly, 10 – Bolsa Grande.
Track & Field
Sunset Wave League Finals were held on April 25 at Laguna’s Hulst Oval/Guyer Field with Marina capturing both the boys and girls titles with Newport second, Huntington third and Laguna fourth.
Sebastian Fisher was a double winner for the Laguna boys squad, taking the 1600 meter run at 4:17.42 and the 3,200-meter run at 9:23.46.
On the girl’s side, Ella Dartez won the 100 Meters with a 12.61, Majia Shaw a double winner taking the 200 with a 25.91 and the 400 in 57.99. The 4 x 100 relay of Ella Dartez, Shanai Auguis, Riley Russo, and Majia Shaw won with a time of 49.92.
Boys Volleyball (13-14, 0-6)
Laguna was selected as an at-large D1 entry in the 16-school top division and seeded 12th in the playoffs. Six Sunset Conference schools made the cut as Laguna earned a spot over Mater Dei (22-10) who lost a league playoff on April 24 to Orange Lutheran for the Trinity League’s last automatic spot. For the Breakers, this was their 46th consecutive year making the playoffs, the only Southern Section school to qualify each and every year.
On Tuesday, April 30, they traveled to Loyola (19-3) seeded 5th, but ranked #2 nationally in the first round contest. Breakers had to scramble their lineup with the loss of Enzo Sadler, who suffered a severe sprained ankle in Friday’s alumni match. Breakers battled losing 19-25, 14-25, 25-17, 19-25. Geste Bianchi (a junior) had 21 kills, two solo blocks and an ace in the effort. Laguna held an early lead in set four and appeared to be on the verge of forcing a fifth set. George Knapp had 14 digs and Aryton Garcia had 12 digs plus 24 assists in a strong defensive effort. Cubs lead the all-time series 3-2.
Last Friday, the Breakers held their 34th annual Alumni match and gathered a strong squad that featured eight former All-CIF players. The setting of Clay Knapp (2008) and Jack Winn (2012) fed unstoppable Sam Burgi (2018) and Robbie McKnight (2011). Strong play in the middle came from Barry Greenough (2017), Seth Morris (2009) and Reed Thompson (2010). Many of the players played D1 Men’s volleyball as the contest was declared a draw after four sets 21-25, 25-17, 25-20, 18-25 so many of the participants could attend the event honoring Rolf Engen at the Women’s Club. Artists still lead the series 23-9-2.
At the event honoring Rolf, many former players from the 70s and early 80s gathered to remember Engen. Cliff Amsden (1972-75) spoke for the players, and Rolf’s former coach, Al Scates, also provided a great speech.
