Damien Boys' Volleyball Team to Make First Ever CIF Championship Match

LA VERNE - Although only five years old, the Damien High School boys volleyball team is making its first appearance in a CIF final by virtue of its 25-17, 25-19, 29-27 victory over Santa Fe Wednesday night in one Division 5 semifinal. Only last season the Spartans qualified for the quarterfinals before losing to Bishop Montgomery.

Christian Hernandez had 11 kills, Chris Jorritsma and Michael Spinney each tallied 10 kills and John Parata added seven kills for the Spartans, who will face #2 seeded Arrowhead Christian in Saturday’s Division 5 final at Cerritos College. First serve is at 9:00 am.

Arrowhead Christian advanced by virtue of its 25-22, 25-19, 25-16 victory over Laguna Blanca Wednesday night.

After easily winning the first two sets of the match, Damien found out why Santa Fe was the fourth seed, as the Chiefs took an early 3-0 lead behind two Calvin Lawson kills before a Jorritsma kill put the Spartans into the fray. Boris Kortscheff led three Chiefs with five kills. Carlos Alverez and Cameron Fisher also tallied five kills.

“We had it our way in the first two games,” Damien head coach Randy Bohlmann said. “Santa Fe picked it up in the third game, and piped down on its blocks.”

Piped down on the blocks they did, behind Isaiah Canlas’s six blocks (two solo and four assisted) including three in a row during a run which gave the chiefs and early seven point cushion.

A Jorritsma’s service ace tied the set 23, but Santa Fe couldn’t close out the set, having set point at 24-23 and 27-26.

Damien was finally able to break through, first behind a Jorritsma block to get the ball back, and then a block by Spinney to turn back Kortscheff’s attack for the victory.

“We knew there was the fourth game,” Spinney said, “but we really wanted to finish it in three. We just kept pushing. We stuck together as a team and made a run at the end when we really needed to.”

“It hasn’t really sunk in,” junior libero Nick Hibshman said, “I still have a lot of adrenaline in my system. I think it will sink in eventually.”