Sage Hill will play host to Chadwick, in the quarterfinals Friday at 7 p.m.
Bell-Jeff was expecting junior Bayle Smith’s tough hitting and powerful jump serving, but senior Carl Hillgren, whose presence had been spotty during the regular season, caught them unawares.
Hillgren, who had 10 kills, wasn’t on the video Bell-Jeff Coach Miguel Segura analyzed, and neither was junior middle Harlan Webster. Segura was on the lookout for Smith, sophomore Joey Booth, and junior Alex Lowe.
Smith led with 17 kills and five aces, including two aces back-to-back in Game 2. Booth had eight kills.
“Boy, they surprised us a little bit,” Segura said. “Our game plan wasn’t exactly up to par, but they’re a good team.”
Last season Segura led the Guards (17-7) to the CIF quarterfinals, where they lost to eventual champion Viewpoint. This year, Bell-Jeff finished second in the Santa Fe League to Salesian, the favorite to win the Division V title. Salesian was ranked No. 1 in the Division V coaches’ poll for the final six weeks of the regular season.
But Segura said he got a surprise from his own team as well.
“We didn’t come out ready to play at all, obviously,” Segura said. “It took us all the way to the third game where we finally relaxed a little bit and started playing with them. We didn’t pass. Our passing was horrible. They served it, and they went on runs of six or seven points in a row, on just a serve, and we couldn’t even get the ball back over to them ... I don’t even recognize this team. I think we could have given [Sage Hill] a much better game than what we did.”
