Volleyball: Rebels Fall to Top-Seed Vistamar in D5 Quarterfinals

The odds were stacked against the Flintridge Prep boys volleyball team even with 6-foot-8 middle blocker Kenyatta Smith in the lineup.

But Smith’s void left a huge hole and the Rebels lost to visiting top-seeded Vistamar of El Segundo 25-14, 25-16, 25-14 in the quarterfinals of the CIF-Southern Section Division 5 playoffs.

“He slipped coming out of his house and fell on a rake, which punctured his abdomen,” coach Sean Beattie said. “So he had to get six stitches yesterday. He’s having trouble just walking around right now. He was getting ready to leave for practice yesterday (Friday).”

Beattie said the most frustrating part about Smith’s injury was the timing.

The Rebels (12-15) opened the CIF playoffs by rallying from two games down to defeat host Laguna Blanca of Santa Barbara. They then went on to defeat Firebaugh of Lynwood in the second round.

“We’re starting to reach the potential that I saw in these guys at the beginning of the year,” Beattie said. “One injury makes a large impact on the team. The hurtful thing is you have 12 seniors on this team.”

Smith said it was not easy being in street clothes on the Rebels’ bench.

“It was tough to miss and even harder to watch,” said Smith, who will play basketball at Harvard next fall. ‘You really want to do something in your last game and help your team. We wanted to go far in the playoffs, but we definitely had a great season.”

Vistamar (21-2) took advantage of not having Smith at the net.

Evan Simon had 15 kills, Alex Stephanus had 13 and Colin McCall had 12 for the Vikings.

“We were expecting to them to have Smith. We were prepared to stop or attempt to stop the middle attack,” Vistamar coach Alec Gilliland said. “We didn’t have too much information on them. We did they best with what we had. We saw them play last year.”

Vistamar came out and built solid leads in all three games.

Following an ace by Flintridge Prep’s Jordan Manker that made it 13-8, but the Rebels were never able to get within five points in the first game.

McCall, who had a powerful jump serve, ended the game by serving an ace.

The Rebels built a 5-3 lead in the second game thanks to kills from Chad Cosse and Jared Norsworthy. Norsworthy led Flintridge Prep with seven kills and Cosse had four.

But Vistamar’s trio of Simon, Stephanus and McCall were too tough to overcome as they cruised to a 25-16 win.

Struggles continued in the final game for the Rebels. They fell behind 8-3 when Beattie called a timeout. When Vistamar increased its lead to 14-7, he called yet another timeout.

But Simon took over as he had five kills following the Rebels second timeout, including the match clincher.