Back for the banner: Livingston boys volleyball one win from section title.
Despite winning a Northern California Regional championship and playing in the state finals last year, the Livingston High boys volleyball team was unable to win a Sac-Joaquin Section championship along the way. The Wolves lost the section title match in five games to Ben Holt College Prep Academy.
Livingston will get a second opportunity to win a blue banner on Saturday after sweeping River Islands 25-19, 25-20, 25-13 in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV semifinals on Wednesday night. The top-seeded Wolves (37-6) will face No. 3 El Dorado (24-9) in the finals on Saturday at noon at Cosumnes River College in Sacramento. “A section title would mean redemption,” said Livingston High senior Bradley Kaji. “We fell a little short last year and this year we’re coming back to finish it off and take it all the way to state.”
The Wolves have faced tough competition in their journey back to the section title game, but have managed three-game sweeps in the playoffs of Weston Ranch, El Camino and River Islands. Livingston head coach Mike Alvernaz says this section playoff run was tougher than last year. He credits athletic director Scott Winton for adding some tough, bigger programs to their schedule this year.
“A lot has to do preseason,” Alvernaz said. “Scott really jacked up our schedule. We played a lot of D1 teams which really helped us prepare for this. We played some really tough teams and I didn’t think we’d have this kind of record because of the schedule we had.”
River Islands battled Livingston tough early in the first two games before the Wolves were able to pull away late. The Wolves had an 18-17 lead in the first game and was eventually able to run off five consecutive points to close out the game to take a 1-0 lead. The second game was tied 15-15 before the Wolves took control of the game late.
“These guys really wanted it,” Alvernaz said. “They haven’t lost on our court since last year. State is nice and that’s our goal, but picking up the blue banner is another big goal. Not that we were discounting league play, but we wanted to get back to sections and get that blue banner that we didn’t win last year.”
The Wolves did have an injury scare in the second game when senior Gurvir Singh came down awkwardly and rolled an ankle. Singh had to come out of the match, but was able to return after having his ankle taped. “He’ll be sore tomorrow but he’ll be ready for Saturday,” Alvernaz said.
Singh had an ice bag waiting for him after the match. His teammates were nervous when they saw their star player sidelined with an injury. “Major relief, I was holding my breath the whole time,” said senior Navjot Sekhon. “It was a major sigh of relief when I saw him walk back on the court and he was good to go. Got my hopes up.”
Singh led the Wolves with 21 kills and two blocks. Kaji added nine kills and two blocks and Sekhon finished with eight kills. Shabadjot Kaloya dished out a team-high 24 assists and Gurmukh Gill added 16 assists.
The Wolves are grateful to be back on the big stage of a section championship match again. “Last year’s game was so disappointing for us,” Sekhon said. “I still remember that disappointment, especially after we won one set 25-13 from them and they won in five. I think this is a redemption year for us to go back to prove we can win sections. State is our goal, but we have to realize we lost sections last year and we want to bring it home this year so we can have a banner hanging up there.”
Shawn Jansen is the MUHSD Program Manager Digital Media. He can be reached at Sjansen@muhsd.org.