EL SEGUNDO HERALD March 30, 2017 Page 5 Lund-Led Eagles Making a Statement in Lacrosse By Gregg McMullin The sport of lacrosse is still fairly new to El Segundo High School sports. Lacrosse has been a sanctioned sport for just four seasons, but the Eagles are coming off back-to-back league titles. The team has grown from having enough athletes to play to adding a successful feeder JV program. One of the reasons for the team and program’s success is Cory Lund. The senior four-year starter set a scoring mark as a junior last season and he has only gotten better as he helps mentor younger teammates in his final year in high school. Lund, a natural leader, is a multi-sport athlete who loves playing lacrosse. As a youngster he excelled in baseball, football, soccer and beach volleyball before taking up his passion for playing lacrosse. With the high school season nearing the midway point, this 4.1 GPA student will be taking his athletic talents and thirst for higher education to Williams College in Massachusetts to play for the Ephs Lund led his team to a nail-biting 12- 11 two-overtime-period victory over West Ranch. The non-league win over the Wildcats was important because of potential playoff implications down the road. There are just 16 playoff positions that include league champions and a few at-large teams. With the win over a higher ranked West Ranch team, it could provide a playoff chip for the Eagles should they be considered as an at-large team if they do not overtake Santa Monica in the standings. The Ocean League race should come down to El Segundo and Santa Monica, but the Vikings defeated the Eagles earlier in the season 9-8. The two teams will meet again on April 19 at Santa Monica. The Eagles and Wildcats are similar in style of play and thus were evenly matched. The score was knotted at 6-6 at halftime and 8-8 after three quarters. The Eagles led 11-10 with less than a minute remaining in the fourth period before surrendering the tying goal with a mere 20 seconds left in regulation. With a scoreless first overtime, the match went into a second overtime period when Lund found an opening for the winning score as time was winding down. Lukas Roscoe led the Eagles with five goals and two assists, while Lund finished with three goals and two assists. Daniel Ball scored once and had two assists, and Isaiah Lynch had a goal and assist to Roscoe, while Rory Cochrane scored once and Devin Bonney had two assists. SBA loans. Business credit lines. Cash management services. Commercial RE, construction and equipment loans. Tiffany Clyne Senior Vice President 310.321.3282 tclyne@grandpointbank.com 1960 E. Grand Avenue, Suite 1200 El Segundo, CA 90245 grandpointbank.com Five-Star Superior Rating by BauerFinancial Devin Bonney was an instrumental part of the offense by winning 15 of 26 face-offs and collecting a game-high 11 groundballs. Alex Nolan was outstanding in goal with 12 saves. The Eagles faced Palisades on Monday and Village Christian yesterday, with Beverly Hills on Friday on the road. Girls’ Beach Volleyball Beach volleyball has become a dynamic sport to play and now the El Segundo Eagles have a team led by head coach and former AVP pro and Winthrop College standout Tori Grafeman. There are 24 girls on the roster with three pairs competing in the top three varsity positions. The Eagles are competing in the Ocean Division of the IBVL along with Harvard Westlake, North Torrance, Louisville and Windward. In the season opener, the Eagles downed North Torrance 3-0. Michelle Dell and Gracie Covey won 21-5, 21-8; Kass McFadden and Anna Allen won 21-16, 21-1; and the duo of Lexi Tecun and Malia Hui triumphed 22-10, 21-11. The Eagles moved to 2-0 on the season when they blanked Windward 3-0. Dell and Covey dominated 21-8, 21-12; McFadden and Anna Allen won a thriller 21-18, 21-16; and Tecun and Hui dropped the middle set, but won the third in a 21-13, 14-21, 15-8 match. The Eagles play their matches at Dockweiler Beach. They played this past Monday and are set for contests on Saturday, April 22 and Saturday, April 29. International Little League Tournament Beach Cities Baseball Academy is hosting its annual Little League International Invitational Tournament at Brett Field and Marine Field in Manhattan Beach starting at 10 a.m. at Brett Field and the Bobby Sox Field. This is the sixth year that Beach City has hosted the tournament and it will be the largest event it has sponsored yet. The first tournament evolved from the major earthquake in Tokyo six years ago. Originally a team from Beach City Baseball Academy had planned to visit and play a series of games against the Kitasuna Little League team. When the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami struck the coast of Japan, the magnitude 9.0 undersea shaker caused devastation and essentially canceled the Beach City team’s trip. Beach City Academy owner, Richard Murad brainstormed with others and decided to bring some relief to some very unfortunate people. He invited the Japan team to leave Ball Doesn’t Bounce Bruins’ Way By Adam Serrao There was nothing sweet about UCLA’s 86- 75 loss to the Kentucky Wildcats last Friday night in the Sweet 16. Kentucky was able to advance to the Elite Eight to later take on the North Carolina Tar Heels. The Bruins, however, were left wondering what went wrong on a night that was supposed to go their way and belong to freshman sensation Lonzo Ball. Instead of Ball, it was De’Aaron Fox and the youngsters on Kentucky who showed up in the spotlight as an 11-point loss officially put an end to UCLA’s season. Perhaps the moment was just too big for him, or perhaps the freshman star simply had an off night. Whatever the reason was, though, Ball picked his team’s biggest moment of the year to struggle. Ball finished the game with 10 points and eight assists, but he also had four turnovers and missed five of six three-point attempts while trying--and failing--to get his team back in the game. In all, UCLA turned the ball over 13 times while being outscored 14-2 off of those mistakes. In the end, the Bruins found themselves outsmarted by a Fox. De’Aaron scored a career-high 39 points to help his team win its 14th game in a row and advance to this year’s South Regional final. “I scored like the first eight points of the game, and after that I was like you know it’s going to be a good night for me,” Fox said. Fox’s performance was the best by any freshman in tournament history and best by any player in the tournament since Tayshaun Prince put up 41 against Tulsa in 2002. Along with Ball, Isaac Hamilton, TJ Leaf and Bryce Alford all scored in double figures. Leaf and Hamilton led the way with 17 apiece, but in the end, Kentucky’s all-around game was simply too much for the Bruins to handle. The loss marked the third time that the Bruins would make it to the Sweet 16 under head coach Steve Alford without being able to advance to the Elite Eight. “We just got beat by a very good team that played very, very well tonight,” Alford said, giving all of the credit to Kentucky. Before the game was played, all of the credit was being given to Lonzo Ball for the season that the freshman had been having for UCLA. Ball has already been ceremoniously placed on the Los Angeles Lakers roster, even though there is still the whole routine of an NBA draft to go through. Though it remains to be seen where the Lakers will have the opportunity to pick, there is no doubting the fact that Ball will be at the draft. When asked about his future with the DEADLINES OBITUARIES: Monday at noon. CALENDAR ITEMS: Monday at noon. PEOPLE ITEMS: Monday at noon. CLASSIFIEDS: Tuesday at noon. LEGAL NOTICES: Wednesday at 11:00 am. REAL ESTATE ADS: Monday at noon. AD CANCELLATIONS: Prior Thursday. LATE CANCELLATIONS WILL BE CHARGED 50% OF AD Bruins after his team’s loss, Ball did not hesitate to make his intentions clear. “That was my final game for UCLA,” he said with the same calm and cool demeanor that the freshman always has on the basketball court. “I appreciate all the fans and all the support.” Alford wasn’t surprised of Ball’s decision. “Guys can make a good living sooner than what it was two decades ago, three decades ago,” the coach said of his guard’s decision. Coach Alford had a decision to make of his own. The Indiana alumnus was rumored to be the front-runner to take over as head coach of his alma mater once this season ended. As soon as UCLA’s loss was in the books, however, Alford shot down any speculation that he would be leaving the Bruins. “I’m absolutely, 100 percent, not going to Indiana,” Alford said moments after UCLA’s loss. “I am happy here. I love it here. We have a great recruiting class coming in and a brand-new practice facility. Obviously, I love my alma mater. But I’m committed to UCLA. I am not going to talk to Indiana. I am staying a Bruin.” The next morning, Indiana hired Dayton’s Archie Miller as its next head coach. Ball’s 4-10 shooting night couldn’t have come at a worse time for the Bruins or for the guard who has high hopes of playing in the NBA. With Magic Johnson and new Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka sitting in the front row, Ball was outshined by Fox, who certainly has expectations of going off of the board early in this year’s NBA draft as well. Coming into the game, the Bruins were the nation’s top-scoring team, averaging 90.2 points per game. It wasn’t only the offense on display by Kentucky, but defense as well, holding UCLA to just 33 points in the first half and an eventual total of just 75. “We really picked it up defensively,” Fox said. “That’s why we won. Not because of our scoring. That team averages like 90 points a game and we held them to 15 less than their average.” Everything was quite average for the Bruins except for their scoring on a night that saw the last team from California get bounced out of the NCAA tournament. UCLA was outplayed in every aspect of the game as Kentucky’s excellent young stars took center stage and stole all of the headlines. Now, the Bruins will head into a long offseason that should see the team bring in another excellent recruiting class. For Lonzo Ball, the NBA awaits. Will the 19-year-old Los Angeles product live up to all of the hype, or simply fade into the background as he did against Kentucky? – asixlion@earthlink.net See Eagles, page 7
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