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Long Beach Poly’s sluggish beginnings finally caught up with them on Saturday night in the CIF-SS Division 3 semifinals, as the Jackrabbits failed to overcome another slow start while visiting St. Margaret’s in San Juan Capistrano. The Tartans jumped on Poly’s early struggles, relying on their height to pick on the Jackrabbits and eventually end their season via sweep, 25-19, 25-17, 25-17.
“It’s been late starts, and you see the results of it against a good team,” said Poly coach Sid Davidson. “You have to give that team credit, they’ve been here before and they’re definitely seasoned but we had a very slow start. We played to their tempo of the match and we never really got things going and it showed.”
The Tartans’ length showed early on behind 6-foot-7 Stanford commit Reed Wainwright alongside a pair of 6-foot-5 guys in Miles Eaton and Beckett Harvey. Despite trailing in both of the first two sets, the trio helped the Tartan’s build leads of their own as big as seven and eight points before winning their respective sets.
Poly had trailed two sets previously in the playoffs to Trabuco Hills before coming back to reverse sweep the Mustangs at home in the second round. The Jackrabbits looked to similarly pull themselves back into the game against St. Margaret’s, however with momentum in the hands of the home team, Poly was unable to mimic their comeback against an even lengthier opponent. The Jackrabbits never led in the third set and trailed by as many as eight.
“They were very similar to Trabuco Hills, a very good team,” said Davidoson. “Similarly [their height] definitely gave us trouble. But again I think if we would have settled down and got our first ball passing a lot of that would’ve been erased. We definitely could not get our first ball touch going and that’s what it came down to.”
St. Margaret’s Reed Wainwright led with a game-high 22 kills, meanwhile Beckett Harvey added 10 alongside Miles Eaton’s nine.
Poly’s Lucky Iosuo led the team with 10 kills in his final high school game, meanwhile John Hivley, Jackson Trunelle, and Matt Tsoa each had three.
For Long Beach Poly, the Jackrabbits trip to the semifinals marks just their second appearance since 1998. The last time they made it to the semifinals was in 2020, and the Jackrabbits hosted their first playoff games this season since that appearance four years ago.
“Regardless of what happened in this match, win or lose, these are gonna be memories that they’re gonna have for the rest of their life. We’ve had a great season, and regardless of the outcome nothing can take away from the great season we had,” said Davidson.
St. Margaret’s will host the CIF-SS Division 3 championship game on Saturday against San Clemente. The Jackrabbits will now wait on a potential bid to the CIF State boys’ volleyball playoffs.
