Laguna stuns West Valley

In an injury-marred regular season in which it finished tied for third-place in the Pacific Coast League, the Laguna Beach High boys’ volleyball team has knocked off two league champions in the CIF-Southern Section Division II playoffs to advance to tonight’s quarterfinal round.

Laguna will travel to Valencia to take on No. 1-seed Valencia. Match time is 7 p.m.

On Tuesday, the host Breakers went the distance against Citrus Belt champion West Valley of Hemet and came up with a stirring 14-25, 21-25, 25-12, 25-14, 15-13 come-from-behind stunner at Dugger Gym.

The victory spoiled what had been an undefeated season for West Valley, which entered the contest with a match record of 21-0. The Mustangs had lost only one game in all matches which included tournament play this year, prior to Tuesday.

Xander Olson came up with 14 of his match-best 20 kills in the final two games and teammate Roy McDennon had 15 kills and seven blocks as Laguna, which improved to 15-13, advanced to the quarterfinal round for the 26th time in school history.

Laguna is in the post-season for the 33rd consecutive year and is the only school to have appeared in all 33 years the CIF-SS playoffs have been held.

In the decisive fifth game, Laguna took a 1-0 lead and never trailed. Olson’s hot play included seven kills as Laguna had leads of 3-1, 5-3, 7-4, 9-6, 11-9 and 14-11. But the Breakers gave up two points on a service error and hitting error as West Valley closed to within 14-13. Laguna, though, gained the match-clinching point when the Mustangs hit the ball into the antenna.

Laguna, now 70-27 in postseason play, had come back from a 0-2 deficit in games just three prior times in CIF: Santa Ynez (2004), Irvine (1979) and Corona del Mar (1974).

In its first-round match on May 12 at Pacific League champion Claremont, Laguna came back from game deficits of 1-0 and 2-1 to topple the Wolfpack 22-25, 25-21, 32-34, 25-23, 15-7.

Valencia, which had a first-round bye, swept Golden West League runner-up Highland Tuesday.