Img 8961
Long Beach Poly Millikan Volleyball

Volleyball: Long Beach Poly Claims Outright Moore League Title With Millikan Sweep

The562’s coverage of high school volleyball in 2024-2025 is brought to you by the MLP’s Bay Area Breakers.

The562’s coverage of Long Beach Poly is sponsored by Bryson Financial.

The Long Beach Poly girls’ volleyball team went into last season as underdogs and won a share of the Moore League title. This year they came into the season as favorites, and feeling greedy.

“After sharing it last year we were just like, ‘Let’s NOT do that again,’ and we didn’t,” said Poly senior Emma Holder. The Jackrabbits rode a complete team effort and some big moments from their seniors to a sweep of Millikan 25-15, 25-17, 25-17. 

The sweep clinches an outright Moore League title for Poly for the first time since 2019–they’ll go for an undefeated league season next Tuesday in their regular season finale at home against Wilson.

“This means a lot,” said second-year Poly coach Gerald Aquiningoc, who is two-for-two with league titles since taking over the Jackrabbits. “We’ve gone through a lot of things this year. We’ve been mentally tested, we’ve gone through a lot of ups and downs. We didn’t really have a good start to the season. To see them pull through and pull together to accomplish this, it’s a proud moment. I’m really, really happy.”

The Jackrabbits are a young team with dominant senior middles and a lot of good servers and passers, but entered the season without a dominant clear-cut starter hitting on the pins. The result is that they’ve played a ton of players in rotation at those positions, and frequently win a match without any player reaching double-digit kills.

Holder has been one of the players in rotation, and had a hot hand on Thursday against the Rams. She put up 10 kills on 14 swings to help lead the Jackrabbits to the road sweep. 

“I just love contributing in any way I can,” said Holder. “I think this team, we’ve gotten good at it, where it doesn’t matter what our role is. It matters that we’re on the team and we’re bought in, and we’re supporting each other no matter what. I’m happy to be on the court and I’m happy I could contribute, but I know that even if I’m on the sideline screaming my throat out, what matters is our team and winning.”

The host Rams jumped out to an early 10-7 lead in the first set behind kills by Judah Washington and Catalina Trautner. But Poly’s Hannah Ballungay stepped to the back line and proceeded to serve the Rams out of the Howard Lyon Gymnasium. She put up an 8-0 service run that included three aces, as well as three hitting errors directly caused by the Rams being out of system to handle her serves.

Poly rode that energy to a 25-15 first set win, closing 18-5 to decisively take the lead.

In the second set the Jackrabbits got an early service run that included two aces from Lauren Foster-Elisara. They led wire to wire in the third set as well, with Holder pounding five kills in the set to put the Rams away.

“We’ve had some really good bonding moments lately and the buy in is at its highest,” said Aquiningoc. “And this is the point where it needs to be, with the playoffs coming up. This win is a testament to the girls on wanting to take ownership of this program. I’m happy for them.”

Poly was led by Holder’s 10 kills and two blocks, great setting from Ballungay and Foster-Elisara, 10 kills and an ace from Aleeya Salima, a combined 10 kills from middle blockers Layla Moore and Kristen Dear, four kills from Larissa Foster-Elisara, three kills from Cedra Talaga, and 12 digs from Sydney Mercado.

Millikan was led by four kills and two blocks from Washington, five kills and two blocks from Trautner, and three kills and three blocks from middle blocker Calliope Tirado, who was an emotional spark for the Rams every time she scored.

Both teams will conclude regular season play next week with CIF-SS playoff brackets set to be released on October 19.

VIDEO: Long Beach Poly vs Millikan Volleyball
PHOTOS: Long Beach Poly vs Millikan Volleyball
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.
http://The562.org