The top middle school girls’ volleyball teams in Long Beach converged at Lakewood High last weekend, with three different championships being decided. After all the volleyball had been played, Hughes, Cubberley, and Tincher emerged victorious in their respective divisions.
In Division 1, Hughes emerged as a new champion with a 25-14, 25-19, 25-22 victory over Rogers in the championship game. This was a changing of the guard as Stanford had won the last eight Division 1 championships.
The Hawks were upset by Rogers in the semifinals by a score of 27-25, 25-10, 25-19. Meanwhile, Hughes won its semifinal 25-11, 25-13, 25-10 over Bancroft.
The Division 2 title game went to five sets, with Cubberley coming back for a “reverse sweep” of Keller. The final set scores were 26-28, 19-25, 25-17, 25-21, 15-11.
Keller came into the match undefeated, but Cubberley was able to battle back with a familiar face on the opposing bench. Keller’s head coach, Brian Cleven, is a teacher at Cubberley.
The Cubs reached the title game with a 25-13, 25-11, 21-25, 25-5 win over Jefferson earlier in the week. Meanwhile Keller defeated Hoover 25-15, 25-17, 26-24 to make it to the championship game.
Lastly, the Division 3 title went to Tincher for the second year in a row after the Tigers swept Franklin, 26-24, 25-14, 25-14.
Franklin scored an upset of top-seeded Hamilton in the semifinals to even reach the championship game. The fourth-seeded Wildcats earned a 26-24, 19-25, 25-12, 25-13 win to hand Hamilton its first loss of the season. Tincher got a 3-0 sweep of Muir in the other semifinal.
