{"id":279601,"date":"2026-04-22T02:55:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T02:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/279601\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T02:55:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T02:55:08","slug":"long-beach-poly-earns-dominant-4-1-win-over-rosary-academy-to-open-playoffs-the562-org","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/279601\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Beach Poly Earns Dominant 4-1 Win Over Rosary Academy to Open Playoffs \u2013 The562.org"},"content":{"rendered":"

The562\u2019s coverage of Long Beach Poly Athletics for the 2025-26 school year is sponsored by Former Jackrabbits Wendell \u201cWoWo\u201d Moe, Jr. & Tyson Ruffins.<\/a><\/p>\n

After winning a CIF championship last year, Long Beach Poly is focused on writing a new story this season, and Tuesday\u2019s playoff opener was a perfect start.<\/p>\n

The Jackrabbits hosted Rosary Academy at Long Beach City College in the CIF-SS Division 3 playoffs on Tuesday and made quick work of the Royals, clinching the win early with three straight sweeps to open the match. Poly then closed it out on the final two courts, securing a 4-1 victory to advance to the second round.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a good win,\u201d said Poly coach Litara Keil. \u201cWe have a really good squad that\u2019s even more passionate than the group we had last year so it\u2019s allowed things to go well as we\u2019ve progressed into the playoffs. It\u2019s been hard with the overlaps with club volleyball, but these girls are excited and they really wanted to get the momentum going today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Poly found its most decisive win in a 21-11, 21-9 sweep to open the day from Court 3 pair Maddie Hong and Giselle Millsap, before Aleeya Salima and Keola Napoleon-Alvarez closed out a win on Court 2. That was immediately followed by a sweep from Court 4 pair Finley Stuart and Vivienne Irwin, as Poly quickly took a 3-0 advantage to win it.<\/p>\n

The Jackrabbits\u2019 Court 2 pair of Salima and Napoleon-Alvarez are one of the newer duos Poly has shifted around this year, with Salima a junior and Napoleon-Alvarez only a freshman. The pair reflected on their partnership after the match along with their team\u2019s win.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was honestly so fun,\u201d Napoleon-Alvarez said of her first playoff win. \u201cI\u2019m so grateful that I get to experience this, especially with Aleeya because she\u2019s just so uplifting as a person and it\u2019s fun experiencing it with her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can say the same about her,\u201d Salima added. \u201cI think today was a great way to get rolling into this playoff run. There\u2019s also a lot more teams this year in the bracket so I think it\u2019s great to have some momentum that we created today leading up to a championship run.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keil has had to make some changes in the last week and a half leading up to the playoffs, which led to a few new pairs taking the court on Tuesday without much experience together. That was the case on Court 4 for Stuart and Irwin, who had only played together once this year prior to Tuesday\u2019s win.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had just one hour of practice yesterday, and they killed it today,\u201d Keil said. \u201cThey glued really well together and finished before everybody else, which was a big statement.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two most competitive matches came on either end with Courts 1 and 5, including a gritty win from Avery Milburn and Mina Orbiso on Court 1. The pair went to extra points in both sets against Rosary\u2019s Danielle Thiemann and Kate Duarte, managing wins in both with a 22-20, 23-21 sweep.<\/p>\n

The Jackrabbits even showed some toughness in their only loss of the afternoon, as Lailah Claiborne and Dayna Lagafuaina held Rosary off with a 22-20 second-set win to stay alive before digging out of a big deficit in the third. The pair trailed 11-4 before going on a five-point run and eventually closing within two before falling 15-13.<\/p>\n

Poly will now look ahead to the second round on Tuesday where it\u2019ll face Linfield Christian, which is also coming off of a 4-1 win over Newbury Park.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just taking it one game at a time,\u201d Keil said. \u201cObviously the girls are excited, but we don\u2019t need to be too anxious. The moment they get anxious on the court it\u2019s over, so we just need to make sure they\u2019re focused and working on their skills and what they\u2019ve learned in practice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Final Results:<\/p>\n

Court 1: Avery Milburn\/Mina Orbiso (LBP) def. Danielle Thiemann\/Kate Duarte (ROS) 22-20, 23-21<\/p>\n

Court 2: Aleeya Salima\/Keola Napoleon-Alvarez (LBP) def. Madeline Lambros\/Nicole Basas (ROS) 21-14, 21-15<\/p>\n

Court 3: Maddie Hong\/Giselle Millsap (LBP) def. Anne Duarte\/Leilah Teves (ROS) 21-11, 21-9<\/p>\n

Court 4: Finley Stuart\/Vivienne Irwin (LBP) def. Madilyn Kim-Carrillo\/Lucia Benard (ROS) 21-13, 21-9<\/p>\n

Court 5: Taryn Litfin\/Isabella Ramirez (ROS) def. Lailah Claiborne\/Dayna Lagafuaina (LBP) 12-21, 22-20, 15-13<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The562\u2019s coverage of Long Beach Poly Athletics for the 2025-26 school year is sponsored by Former Jackrabbits Wendell…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-279601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}