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South Pasadena High’s football team hopes to reach the CIF-Southern Section playoffs with a win over visiting La Cañada Friday night, but that’s only the tip of the excitement surrounding athletics on the Tigers’ campus this week.
While South Pasadena football coaches are confident the Tigers will land an at-large berth in the CIF playoffs if they can get past the Spartans on homecoming night and finish the regular season at 7-3, other sports at the school are shining just as bright.
The following is a look at the success of South Pasadena High’s fall sports teams:
Girls’ Volleyball
South Pasadena High’s girls’ volleyball completed a perfect 10-0 Rio Hondo League season, went onto beat Torrance and Royal High School last week in playoff action to advance to Wednesday’s CIF quarterfinal match at La Serna, where they beat the Lancers in five sets.
With the win, the Tigers now move onto the semifinals on Saturday where they will face the winner of the Norco versus Calabasas match.
The Tigers opened Wednesday’s match with a 25-19 first set victory, before falling 25-20 in the second, and 25-23 in the third before coming back to win the fourth, 25-17, setting up an exciting 26-24 finale won by South Pasadena.
Solid play throughout the match came from Alyssa Sokolow, Lola Foord, Sofia Reyes, Abbey Garner, Sydney Abundo and Lindsey Hirano.
Boys Water Polo
The Tigers locked up their second straight Rio Hondo League boys’ water polo title on Wednesday with a 10-7 victory over Temple City on the road.
South Pasadena now heads into the CIF-Southern Section playoffs with a perfect 8-0 Rio Hondo League record, 17-10 overall.
After trailing early, the Tigers rebounded and took a 3-1 advantage in the second period and led 4-3 at the half. Temple City battled back with three straight goals, taking a 6-5 lead at one point in the third quarter before South Pasadena regained it in the fourth, outscoring the Rams down the stretch with a pair of successful shots.
Solid play in the South Pasadena victory came from the Tigers’ Evan Kowal, Anthony Felix, Owen Imasaki, Eddie Lane-Flannigan, Lucas Abrahamian, and goalie Liam Markus.
First round CIF team matchups will be released on Saturday.
Cross Country
South Pasadena High’s boys cross country team won the Individual Sweepstakes last Friday at the Mt. SAC Invitational. To do it, the Tigers beat the No. 1 team in Division 4 of CIF Southern Section.
The Tigers’ varsity girls’ unit came in just short of taking third place by two points.
South Pasadena is gearing up for the Rio Hondo League Finals on November 7 at Lacy Park in San Marino.
Girls Tennis
Carissa Park was South Pasadena High’s lone player to move on from Wednesday Rio Hondo League Prelims to Thursday’s final at Live Oak Park in Temple City.
Park had an easy time of it, getting past opponents from Monrovia and Temple City in first day action while teammates Skylar Cornforth, Olivia Reed and Teryn Kum fell short off advancing.
The Tigers were 8-7 overall on the season, 3-2 against Rio Hondo League opponents.
Girls Golf
South Pasadena High’s Lauren Calderon broke a league record, finishing a 9-hole round in 30 strokes.
Calderon joined Victoria Tskvitchvili on Monday in Ojai for the first round of CIF golf playoffs but did not advance.
