The562’s coverage of Long Beach Poly Athletics for the 2025-26 school year is sponsored by Former Jackrabbits Wendell “WoWo” Moe, Jr. & Tyson Ruffins.
Facing a San Marcos team that features six players listed at 6-feet or taller, the undersized Long Beach Poly Jackrabbits knew they had two key advantages: their proficiency behind the service line, and a home court advantage that can make even the most experienced teams feel flustered.
A whopping 16 service aces made sure that home crowd was at its best all night long, and the Jackrabbits rode that momentum to an impressive 25-17, 28-26, 25-11 sweep in the CIF-SS Division 2 quarterfinals on Wednesday night.
“Especially with a team that big, anything in system and they’re close to the net, they’re hitting over our block,” said Poly head coach Gerald Aquiningoc on the importance of Poly’s serve. “Once we settled in, we were able to serve hard in the seams that we needed to, and our service pressure was key. That’s the key for us. If we can serve hard, we can beat anybody.”
The team they just beat is no slouch. The Royals entered the Ron Palmer Pavilion at 26-6 overall and hadn’t dropped a set in the playoffs–including a sweep of top-seeded Rancho Christian in the second round. After a long drive down from Santa Barbara, they were promptly knocked back on their heels in set one, when the Jackrabbits used a 14-1 run to turn a 12-7 deficit into a comfortable 21-13 lead.
Freshman libero Cheeky Talaga led the way with six aces in the three-set match, to go along with a team-high 14 digs. At one point in the first set, she served aces on three consecutive points. That success proved to be contagious throughout the entire roster, as seven different Jackrabbits recorded at least one ace in the match.
“I was very happy the way everybody served. It was really tough,” said Talaga. “We work on it every time at practice, you’re serving tough, building momentum, so that way it’s like a domino effect on everybody to serve tough.”
Older sister Cika Talaga opened the second frame with consecutive aces of her own, continuing that trend into a hotly competitive second set. Poly was able to race out to a 12-5 advantage, with half of their points coming via the ace–two by each of the Talagas, and a pair from Hannah Ballungay.
Whenever San Marcos was able to receive serve, they showed why they’re one of the top teams in the state, and were able to battle back for a 19-18 advantage in set two. As the teams went back-and-forth, the Jackrabbits were able to stem the tide with some massive points at the end of extended rallies. One point in particular featured perhaps the craziest rally of the season, with both sides delivering some miraculous ups. Eventually, it was Poly middle Alison Wetteland who was finally able to spike one down, sending the home crowd into their biggest frenzy of the night.
“I think those points are really important to us,” said Wetteland, who had seven kills on just 11 swings to hit .455 in the match. “We’ve struggled this whole season with winning those momentum points against like Wilson and Millikan; we’ve had those really long rallies, and we ended up losing them, and that kind of caused a dip in our momentum and our energy. But we’ve been really working on keeping up the energy the whole time, and winning those momentum plays, those long rallies, just makes it so much easier.”
“We were feeding off the crowd a bunch,” said the younger Talaga. “The encouragement that we hear from the crowd, it just helps us so much, and even the bench, they were so great. And like, Poly just runs deep, family, everything. It’s just great.”
Three consecutive miscues by the Royals put Poly up 24-21 in set two, with three set points to work with. The visitors responded with a clutch 4-0 run, which gave them a set point of their own and a chance to get right back into the match. However, a massive block by Dayna Lagafuaina and Aleeya Salima got things level, and an ace by service sub Keola Aquiningoc gave the advantage right back to Poly.
After the teams traded kills, the set ended the same way it started–a Poly service ace. This time it was Lauren Foster, who put away one of her three aces at the right time to give Poly a 28-26 win in the second and a 2-0 lead in the match.
“It was gonna change momentum,” said Coach Aquiningoc of the importance of winning that second set. “If we were able to win that, I knew that we’d play loose in the third, and you see what happened. So that second set was very crucial.”
What happened in set three was dominance from the Jackrabbits, who charged out to a 9-2 lead, and then led 15-5 before ultimately taking the set, 25-11. Poly added four more aces in that set, but also benefitted from eight hitting errors by the Royals. Salima had four of her seven kills in that clinching game as the Jackrabbits punched their ticket to the CIF semifinals.
In total, more than 20 percent of Poly’s points on Wednesday were scored via service ace, and they held a 16-3 advantage over San Marcos in that category. Remarkably, despite the Royals’ size advantage, the teams each finished with five blocks.
Poly’s McKennah Iamaleava had a match-high 10 kills to go with seven digs, Siamelei Purcell chipped in four kills and Lagafuaina added three kills and three blocks for the Jackrabbits.
Looking ahead to Saturday’s semifinal, Poly (28-9) will hit the road to take on No. 4 seed Santa Margarita (22-10) in a match tentatively scheduled for 6 p.m. The Eagles are coming off a sweep of Redlands in their quarterfinal match.
