Title For Guards!

BURBANK: — Consider it official: the Bellarmine-Jefferson High girls’ volleyball team has built a dynasty.
The Guards had to battle a tough St. Anthony squad Tuesday on the road, but the team came out with a win to clinch its fourth straight Santa Cruz League championship.

“I told the team, no matter what league you play in, to win four straight titles is a very big accomplishment,” Bell-Jeff Coach Miguel Segura said. “They have a lot to be proud of.”

The title is the third outright for the Guards (19-8, 8-0 in league), who shared the crown in 2006.

The clinching win was hard to come by for Bell-Jeff, which was pushed for the first time in league this season by the Saints. Despite losing the first two games, the Guards battled back to claim a 23-25, 21-25, 28-26, 25-19, 15-5 victory.

It was the only time in league that an opponent had pushed Bell-Jeff to four games, let along five.

“I don’t know if it was the long bus ride to Long Beach or the fact that we beat everyone in league pretty easily,” Segura said. “but we didn’t play well at all in the first two games.

“But something clicked in that third game, and they started to play much better.”

The Guards were paced in the win by sophomore Jocelyn Cervantes, who tallied 13 kills, 19 assists, 11 digs and three aces. Teammate Breanna Pedron added eight kills, 15 assists, five aces and 14 digs and Kim Van Dyke contributed 22 digs.

The Guards finished their league season Thursday with an easy 25-12, 25-10, 25-8 win against St. Genevieve. Cervantes had eight kills.

Jeff Tulley