EL SEGUNDO HERALD November 9, 2017 Page 5
Playoff Run Ends for Some Teams,
Football Starts Postseason
By Gregg McMullin
The fall sports teams have had incredible
seasons. Each sport has done well enough
to advance to the CIF Southern Section
playoffs. The girls’ volleyball team’s playoff
run reached the CIF Southern Section Division
4 quarterfinals and the boys’ water polo
team’s season ended in the second round
of the playoffs. The boys’ and girls’ cross
country teams each won Ocean League
titles and qualified for the CIF-SS prelims.
The football team’s season continues in the
first round of the CIF-SS Section Division 7
playoffs tonight at El Modena High.
Kurke and Pearson
Lead Volleyball Team
Maddie Kurke and Alyssa Pearson led the
Lady Eagles to a 19-12 season record and a
CIF- Southern Section Division 4 appearance.
It marked the third consecutive season El
Segundo has advanced to the round of eight.
In the first round against Downey, the San
Gabriel Valley League champions, the Lady
Eagles controlled the match from the very
start in winning 25-14, 25-20, 26-24. Alyssa
Pearson had 13 blocks to control the net while
Maddie Kurke had 17 kills to lead the team.
In the first game, the Lady Eagles pulled
away 17-5 by scoring seven consecutive
points. Kurke put the game away with a
kill. In the second game, the team went on
a scoring binge and led 16-4 before Downey
climbed back into the game. Adri Hebert gave
the Lady Eagles some relief and scored on
a block for a 21-17 El Segundo lead to hold
on for the win. In the third game, the Lady
Eagles hung on for a thrilling 26-24 win.
Against Moorpark, El Segundo spotted the
Musketeers at least a three-point lead in all
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310.321.3282
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1960 E. Grand Avenue, Suite 1200
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four games but managed to prevail in the
match 25-21, 25-21, 14-25, 25-23. Each game
was exciting--and playing in front of a full
gym helped the adrenalin for each team. In
each game, the Lady Eagles played catchup.
In the first game, a block by Pearson evened
the score at 16-16. Lexi Tecun’s brilliant play
and digs kept rallies alive and El Segundo
forged ahead 23-20 before winning the first
game. In the second game, Hebert’s block tied
the game at 9-9 to help spark her team. An
ace by Kurke gave the Lady Eagles a 19-14
lead and helped them hold on for the win.
In the third game, El Segundo fell behind
10-3 and never recovered.
With the momentum in Moorpark’s favor,
the Lady Eagles played an inspired game
four. Though Moorpark seemed to control the
scoring with some vicious hits for points, El
Segundo played with more intensity. Kurke’s
kill gave her team a 24-23 lead and then
an unforced error gave her team the win
and match.
The Lady Eagles’ magical season came
to an end against in the CIF-SS Division 4
quarterfinals when they lost to Cypress 25-14,
25-18, 25-20. The Musketeers’ passing, hitting
and digs overwhelmed El Segundo’s attack.
Boys’ Water Polo Falls
in the Second Round
The Eagles won the Ocean League and
entered the CIF playoffs with a 20-7 record.
In the opening round, the Eagles faced Orange
County powerhouse Edison of Huntington
Beach. El Segundo’s 14-12 win over the
Chargers was played with as much emotion
as any this season.
Both Kyle Crist and Owen Hale played
World Series Loss Means More
Heartache for Dodgers and Fans
By Adam Serrao
The World Series championship that has
eluded the Los Angeles Dodgers for so long
will have to wait at least another year to find
itself a home in Southern California. A series
filled with amazing victories, heartbreaking
losses, incredible performances and gigantic
meltdowns most likely could have gone back
and forth for another seven games. Eventually,
however, it ended in favor of the Houston Astros,
as the American League team showed up
on the road in the game that mattered most.
The Dodgers will have a very long offseason
to look back at what went wrong in the
World Series. They’ll also have an even longer
162-game regular season schedule to play in
order to make another run at the team’s first
championship victory in what will now be 30
years of heartache.
Heartache probably can’t begin to describe
the feeling of Dodger fans everywhere as they
watched their team quickly take a 5-0 deficit
in the only Game 7 of the World Series that
Los Angeles has ever been a part of in the
team’s local history. In the biggest moment
of his career, on one of the grandest stages
in the entire sports world, Dodgers pitcher
Yu Darvish failed. The conclusion to a series
that may have been among the most dramatic
ever played ended in the most anticlimactic
fashion possible as Los Angeles was out of
the game and championship contention from
what seemed to be the opening pitch.
Word came out days later that Darvish
was tipping his pitches, meaning that batters
like George Springer, Jose Altuve and Carlos
Correa knew what was coming before the ball
even reached home plate. It certainly looked
that way. Much of the blame there can easily
be placed on Darvish--a pitcher the Dodgers
acquired for exactly this situation. How, though,
as coaches, do you leave a pitcher who clearly
doesn’t have it out on the mound in the most
important game of the year to give up five
runs==especially after his last outing against
the same Astros team in Game 3 in which he
looked just as bad?
As far as blame goes, it can certainly be
placed on Dave Roberts and the rest of the
coaching staff for trusting too much in analytics
and not in their own eyes. Many different
questionable moves throughout the entirety
of the World Series simply culminated in
leaving Darvish out on the mound for far too
long. That, combined with the way that the
Dodgers’ best players sulked and felt sorry for
themselves from the second inning on, gave
the team zero chance at pulling off a comefrom
behind victory in a winner-take-all game
in front of their home crowd.
Ten players left on base only began to
tell the story of a team that clearly did not
want it as much as the Houston Astros. Cody
Bellinger--who looked as if he had been out
partying too late for Halloween the night
before--committed a brutal error to start the
game when he inexplicably threw a fielded
ground ball behind Darvish, who was covering
first base, in a play that led to two runs and a
massive momentum switch for Houston. Not
only was the Los Angeles home crowd taken
out of the game from that point forward, but
Bellinger also proceeded to hurt the team at the
plate. He struck out three times on the night
and went 0-4, acting as the main, major hole
in the lineup that led to almost zero offensive
production for a team that still managed to
obtain more hits than its counterparts in the
final box score.
The Dodgers were 98-0 this season when
having the lead after eight innings of play. Yet,
in Game 2, Roberts left Jansen in for his second
career six-out save attempt and the Dodgers
wound up losing the game. The Dodgers were
100-1 in starts by Clayton Kershaw when he
was given at least a four-run cushion. Kershaw
gave up both a four-run lead and a three-run
lead in Game 5 before being pulled in a loss
that eventually saw the Dodgers go down 3-2
in the best of seven series. Theoretically, the
Dodgers should have won five of the first six
games played against the Astros, were it not
for bad coaching decisions and All-Star players
buckling under playoff pressure.
Putting the blame game aside, the Astros
were simply the better team. They made more
plays when it counted and fewer mistakes at
key moments in the series. For the Dodgers,
they are now forced to once again focus on
next year. How will the team get better so that
it can finally take the next step forward and
become champions instead of simply making
it to the playoffs or the Fall Classic? Darvish,
Logan Forsythe, Brandon Morrow and Chase
Utley are all free agents, among others. Clayton
Kershaw will be another year older, coming off
of another year in which he was injured. Corey
Seager may need surgery to repair his ailing
elbow. Drama involving Adrian Gonzalez hovers
around the team. All of those questionable
situations, and more, surround a 104-win team
that finished with the best record in baseball
yet will be looking to improve upon a year
that once again somehow ended in letdown.
The Dodger season went on for as long
as it possibly could have this year, providing
the team’s fans with a maximum amount
of entertainment value. The year may have
ended with a loss and in disappointment, but
the memories of joy, elation, excitement and
accomplishment will remain. The only thing
to do now is to focus attention toward next
season. The Dodgers have been through three
decades of baseball that have all ultimately
ended in disappointment. Los Angeles and the
team’s fans will once again look forward to
next year in order to finally rid the franchise
of all of its surrounding regret.
– Aserrao6@yahoo.com •
“You give loyalty,
you’ll get it back.
You give love, you’ll
get it back.”
– Tommy Lasorda
Kassy McFadden and Adrie Hebert go high for a block.
See Eagles, page 14