St. John Bosco Earns Shot at Mira Costa

Few people outside the private all-boys’ school in Bellflower would have agreed, but Paul Spittle knew all along that St. John Bosco was going to be just fine after standout Steve Klosterman transferred.

Spittle and his teammates have made sure of it this season, the latest example a 15-4, 15-9, 15-13 victory over Thousand Oaks in a Southern Section Division II boys’ volleyball semifinal Wednesday at Westlake High.

Spittle had 32 kills and Kevin Cape added 25 kills for third-seeded St. John Bosco, which will play top-seeded Mira Costa for the championship Saturday at Cypress College.

St. John Bosco has hardly missed Klosterman, a second-team all-section performer as a sophomore who transferred to Huntington Beach Marina before the school year.

“There was no doubt in my mind this team would do [well], even without Steve,” said Spittle, who has signed with UC Irvine. “We wanted to show everyone it didn’t matter who we had.”

St. John Bosco (39-1) did not trail in the first two games and will play in a final for the first time since 1993.

Thousand Oaks (19-5) stunned Loyola in a five-game quarterfinal. “The first game-and-a-half we didn’t show up,” Coach James Park said. “I guess we left it all at Loyola.”

Kevin Rex had 19 kills for Thousand Oaks.

Mike Bresnahan

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Anaheim Canyon d. Santa Margarita, 9-15, 15-13, 16-14, 12-15, 15-13--John Parfitt, a junior outside hitter, had 74 kills to lead Canyon to a Division III semifinal victory at Orange High. Jordan Bekier had 65 assists for Canyon.

Anaheim Esperanza d. Arcadia, 15-11, 15-11, 15-7--Jayson Jablonsky had 14 kills and four aces and Mark Lovein had 14 kills and seven blocks to lead Esperanza (15-5) to a Division I semifinal victory over Arcadia (23-9) at Placentia Valencia High.