Vanguard has much work to do to salvage one of six spots in the Golden State Athletic Conference Tournament. It has 12 conference games scheduled from Friday to April 28 and can scarcely afford to lose any.
The Lions, 7-13 in GSAC play, are in eighth place in the nine-team conference. But they are only three games behind fourth-place Biola (10-10) and much closer in the loss column to fifth-place Westmont (10-13) and sixth-place Fresno Pacific (10-14).
Vanguard finishes the regular season with four games each against third-place The Master's, seventh-place San Diego Christian and Westmont.
"The top six teams from the GSAC all go [to the conference tournament], so we have an opportunity to do some things," Grajeda said. "It was a tough first half, there's no getting around it. But our next 12 games are gigantic."
