Whittier Christian’s girls volleyball team drew the No. 4 seed in Southern California and will host a first-round match against La Costa Canyon on Tuesday when the Division II playoffs begin.
The Heralds are coming off a sweep of Mayfield in the CIF-SS Division 2A final Saturday and sport a 33-6 record. Last season, they also won the 2A title but were seeded No. 7 and lost a first-round SoCal match on the road to end their season.
La Costa Canyon finished as runner-up in the San Diego Section Open Division. The Mavericks have a 25-9 record and are seeded No. 5.
Tuesday’s winner will likely face No. 1 seed Corona Santiago in Saturday’s second round. The Sharks are 37-0 this season after topping Oaks Christian 3-1 in the Division 2AA final, surrendering their first set of the season in the victory. Santiago opens the playoffs Tuesday at home against Woodland Hills Taft (31-11), which won the L.A. City Section Division 2 title.
The state finals will be held at Santiago Canyon College in Orange on Dec. 7.

Friday’s CIF-SS Southeast Division semifinal between La Serna and Burbank will kick off at 7:30 p.m. at Cal High.
Both teams take 10-2 records into the game, and both are coming off lopsided quarterfinal victories. La Serna routed Diamond Bar 51-7 and Burbank was a 42-0 winner over Santa Fe. La Serna is seeded No. 2 in the division.
In the other semifinal, top-seeded Norwalk (12-0) will visit No. 4 Muir (11-1).

When Whittier Christian won last season’s CIF-SS Division 2A girls volleyball title with an all-junior starting lineup, it was pretty clear the Heralds would be the team to beat in 2013.
Well, they were, and no one could, at least not during the Division 2A playoffs. Whittier Christian swept a young-but-tough squad from Mayfield on Saturday by scores of 25-19, 25-19, 25-19. It was the Heralds’ second consecutive championship and their third trip to the finals in a row.
“It’s surreal,” senior setter Jennifer Washle, one of eight seniors on the team, said of winning back-to-back crowns. “It doesn’t even feel like we won. This goal that we set for ourselves in the summer just happened. It’s an amazing feeling.”
Whittier Christian improved its record to 33-6 and awaits Sunday’s Division 2 pairings release for the upcoming Southern California Regionals. The Heralds are hoping for a little better draw than they got last year, when they were seeded No. 7 out of eight teams and lost on the road in the first round to Riverside ML King.
“We would love to make a great run and enjoy it,” coach Shawn Hunter said of the SoCal playoffs.
Seniors Kylee Wolfe (15 kills, 8 digs), Deanna Blaine (11 kills) and Stephanie Stevenson (10 kills, 2 solo blocks, 3 block assists) did most of the damage, and Washle added 40 assists and five aces, including the match clincher in Set 3.
Whittier Christian played most of the season – and all of the playoffs – with a large target firmly affixed to its back. But the Heralds lost just one set in five matches and showed a remarkable capacity for remaining calm and resilient.
“It’s really hard to come back and win again,” said Wolfe, “and to accomplish that is amazing.”

And then there was one …
Whittier-area football teams took it on the chin in Friday’s second round of the CIF-SS playoffs, with four of the five teams eliminated. Losses from Santa Fe (42-0 vs. Burbank), Montebello (41-7 vs. Monrovia) and Schurr (28-14 vs. Arroyo) weren’t surprises. But the shocker of the night was top-seeded La Habra losing to Newport Harbor 49-48 in the Southwest Division. I felt the Highlanders were a lock to reach their first final since 2010. Instead, Friday’s loss was their third in a row in either the first or second round of the playoffs.
The only area team to advance was La Serna, which routed Diamond Bar 51-7 in the Southeast Division and improved to 10-2. The Lancers, division finalists the last two years, will host Burbank next week in the semifinals.

Friday’s scores
Mid-Valley Division
Monrovia 41, Montebello 7
Arroyo 28, Schurr 14
Southeast Division
La Serna 51, Diamond Bar 7
Burbank 42, Santa Fe 0
Southwest Division
Newport Harbor 49, La Habra 48

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