La Jolla High boys beach volleyball: Blocks at the net and running commentary

LA JOLLA – A persistent mental image: 6-foot-3 Zepher Smith leaping at the net and disappearing into the stratosphere above.

The La Jolla High School senior has, time and again, gone forward in beach volleyball matches and blocked his opponent’s hit at crucial times.

The most crucial time was in the Vikings’ finals appearance on Oct. 23 against dominant Torrey Pines, the eventual winner. Smith and his partner, fellow senior Chase Ostrom, split their first two games against Cullen Gibson and Cruz Acers (so perfect a name, it sounds made up).

In the third and deciding game, the Viking pair went on a run and took the decider 15-6 — the only match the La Jolla side won the whole day.

“He can touch 11 feet from a standing position,” says LJHS associate head coach Dave Jones, a long-time participant in the local volleyball scene, of the leaping Zepher, who always plays his matches wearing a cap.

Smith is lanky and wiry. One action photo of La Jolla’s 5-0 win over Classical Academy in the semifinals — boy’s volleyball is still a club sport, waiting for official sanction — shows his heavily developed shoulder muscles straining as he dives to the sand to dig a ball.

Another feature of this fall’s march to the Div. II finals is junior Nate Dickinson’s running commentary of teammates’ moves, as he warms up alongside the courts at “The Pit,” La Jolla’s home away from home in South Mission Beach opposite the Giant Dipper roller coaster in Belmont Park — but more on that later.

“Zepher with a block,” announces the diminutive Dickinson, 5’5″ and partner to Mercan Findikoglu on the Vikings’ fives pair to no one in particular, and either gets chuckles or resigned tolerance from his teammates. “Adam with a set from another world,” Nate intones about the senior Grushkevich, a four-year indoor veteran who partners with classmate Sonny Wiczynski this season.

“We’ve been playing together since the third or fourth grade,” says Sonny. “He kept playing, and I took time away, then we played together again. We went to the same elementary school, then Muirlands Middle School.”

Which points up the sheer veteran-ness of the Vikings’ lineup — how long they’ve each been playing, and how that has paid off in a successful run this year. They’ve faced off against teams that are only in their second year of existence (Madison), or are slowly gaining that track record of time on the sand (La Jolla Country Day).

Among La Jolla’s present challenges is trying to find a home court closer to the campus for both the boys’ and girls’ beach teams, which have to make the long trek down to South Mission Beach.

“The option to talk with Muirlands’ administration seems more possible at this point,” said boys’ assistant Cantrell Schlecht on Oct. 21.

She had mentioned earlier in the season that nearby Bishop’s has bought a church property near Kate Sessions Elementary School and that La Jolla might discuss sharing space with them or talk with the middle school about playing on campus, since baseball already has its diamond at Muirlands.