Beach VB team enters new year
By Hector Trujillo
Despite losing eight of its 10 players from last season to graduation, the Scripps Ranch High School boys beach volleyball team hopes to have a strong showing in 2023, after winning the open championship last season.
“It will kind of be a rebuilding year,” said head coach Lance Taschner. “Last year was the first year we had the beach volleyball courts in and (we) are excited that this year we’ll be able to practice there from day one.”
Despite boys beach volleyball not currently being an approved CIF sport, it has grown tremendously in popularity over the years with girls beach volleyball already approved as a spring sport.
“The game against Poway will be a big game this year. When we play them, it’s always a good one,” Taschner said. “I’m expecting us to be competitive. We made the open playoffs three years in a row, so we’re looking to make the open playoffs again.”
Jett Reyes and Aidan Daza will be key figures in helping the new players build chemistry in order to make a run and see if the team can emulate what it accomplished in 2022, finishing undefeated and beating Torrey Pines High School 3-2 in the open division beach volleyball championship on Oct. 28.
“It was an amazing season filled with a bunch of seniors who have paved the way for an abundance of underclassmen who joined the program this season,” Judy Taschner said. “Scripps has a bright future in beach volleyball and some amazing courts to practice getting better.”
Scripps Ranch was able to make the finals last year after winning its quarterfinal match against Carlsbad High School 4-1 and following that up with a dramatic 3-2 victory over Cathedral Catholic. What made the achievement even more improbable was the fact that the SRHS campus was officially approved for excavation for beach volleyball only in August of 2022 with steps that included filling the courts with sand and putting in the volleyball equipment immediately after.
Here is the 2023 schedule: vs. San Marcos on Sept. 14, vs. Canyon Crest on Sept. 21, vs. Poway on Sept. 28, vs. Westview on Oct. 5, vs. Classical Academy on Oct. 12, quarterfinals begin on Oct. 19.