Lakewood Volleyball
Lakewood Volleyball

PREVIEW: Lakewood Girls’ Volleyball

Lakewood is led by a pair of seniors who play hard and have a strong leadership role with their young team.

The Lancers will feature a true Lakewood legacy at outside hitter, with big swinger Julia Crawford (the younger sister of Phillies infielder JP). Crawford has been a varsity standout for years, and is ready to take the spotlight this season alongside setter Romoni Vivao, a UC Santa Barbara commit.

In the Tae Kim Molten Classic last week, the pair led Lakewood to the championship match, combining for almost 30 digs while also leading the team with 31 kills from Crawford and 45 assists from Vivao.

Other than that? It’s a lot of young, new faces for the Lancers.

“We’re starting two freshmen, we’ll have three on the floor at times this year” said longtime head coach Mike Wadley. “We made our nonleague schedule tougher than usual, playing Santa Margarita, Mater Dei. We did that on purpose to try to get some experience fast–we have to be mentally tough when we’re playing Poly or Los Al and there’s standing room only crowds.”

Lakewood will feature freshman Saeeda Ali on the right side and frosh Keke Hall in the middle, along with junior Makayla Sorenson. Zyaire Garrit is a big talent outside for the Lancers but suffered a serious knee injury in the spring, which she’s just now working back from; the libero will be Karyzma Aualiitia.

While Garrit is working back from injury, look for the Lancers’ wild card to be senior outside Roxii Robinson, who should be a big contributor.

Volleyball: Lakewood, Millikan, St. Anthony Earn Hardware

Mike Guardabascio
An LBC native, Mike Guardabascio has been covering Long Beach sports professionally for 13 years, with his work published in dozens of Southern California magazines and newspapers. He's won numerous awards for his writing as well as the CIF Southern Section’s Champion For Character Award, and is the author of three books about Long Beach history.
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