ENCINO — A pair of historically uncharacteristic regular seasons came to an end for the Crespi and St. Francis boys volleyball teams Tuesday night.
And both teams found reasons to be excited about what comes next.
St. Francis defeated Crespi, 18-25, 25-20, 25-21, 25-21, in the Mission League finale to earn just its sixth win of the season.
That win earned the Knights (6-16 overall, 4-2 league) third place in league and a spot in the CIF Southern Section playoffs that begin next week. Despite the team’s struggles this season, the Knights kept their playoff streak alive, as they have earned nine straight postseason berths.
On the other side of the net, Crespi (15-8, 3-3) made history this year with the program’s best regular season since 2012. It finished in fourth place in league.
St. Francis notched the win behind some scrappy play and solid defensive adjustments. Junior libero Wyatt Savella anchored the back row while also giving Crespi trouble with his big jump serve.
Also making an impact was Knights middle blocker Hudson Pruitt, who totaled just four points in the first two sets but exploded in the last two sets to finish with 14 points off nine kills and five blocks.
For the Knights, outside hitter Nolan Reyes led the team with 15 kills and added a trio of aces.
After dropping the first set, St. Francis never trailed in set two and fell behind for only a few plays in set three.
Knights coach Carlos Medina has seen his team come a long way since learning how to play in a new defensive scheme.
“The thing is, most of these guys hadn’t been in the defensive scheme like that before,” Medina said. “So it took a lot of training. It took a lot of, you know, getting punched in the mouth by Burroughs, (Crescenta Valley), Poly, San Juan Hills was the real deal. All these teams really showed us the high level of play.
“And honestly … having Loyola in our in our league is tough, but when you see what the best team in the country looks like, and you score at least 20 points on them, that kind of helps you (have) the perspective of, hey, this system works.”
Both teams caught fire in the third set as Reyes and Crespi outside hitter Domenic Rozema added one big swing after another. They each had seven kills in the third set.
Rozema finished with 13 kills overall and fellow outside Adrian Farvili led Crespi with 15 kills.
The Celts kept set three close until Knights opposite Cooper Birkett had back-to-back kills to seal the set.
Crespi played better in the fourth set and kept numerous balls up in a long rally to setup set point, but the Knights finished the game with a match-point kill from Jonah Banta, who totaled 13 kills.
Crespi setter George Bergstrom played well but wasn’t able to make as many flash plays as St. Francis’ serving kept the Celts serve receive off balance.
“I would give St Francis the credit,” Celts co-head coach Bill Bergstrom said. “They served tough. We served out. And when they served tough, they took our setter out of the game, and then they made us one dimensional. They dug and they controlled the ball.”
The Knights had to replace 11 seniors on last season’s team and had a returning starter transfer out. After changes to the lineup, formations and even coaching staff roles, Medina’s team found a way.
“I’m proud because I’m a competitor, I want to win every match,” Medina said. “It was hard for me to go on a six and seven game losing streak. It was really hard. But I think the big thing was that we were able to really hone down our ego, not just players, but coaches as well. To recognize, hey, we need to change our roles.”
Crespi’s historic season will also continue and Bergstrom’s group will get their first taste of the postseason.
“So to put it in perspective, we’ve won more games this year than the previous two or three years combined,” Bergstrom said. “We had the No. 1 ranked player in the country on our team two years ago, and two other college players, and they couldn’t make playoffs and they had a losing record. Our team is a bunch of players that are 6-1 and under and they just scrapped, clawed and they fought. And they achieved making playoffs, which is something completely new for this school.”
Bergstrom said he the regular-season finale as a warmup for the postseason.
“This was a warning for our team about fighting on every single play and pushing and competing on every single play,” Bergstrom said. “That’s it. And this is what we should expect when we’re in the playoffs. Teams will play this hard every single play in every single game. Now we should be ready.”
The CIF Southern Section will release the playoff brackets Saturday.