Archer Volleyball Faces Bishop Union High School to Open CIF-SS Playoffs

The Archer School for Girls opens the California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section (CIF-SS) 4A playoffs Tuesday night at Santa Monica College against Bishop Union High School.  

First serve is at 7 p.m. Parking available in the public lot on Pico Boulevard, although the best option is metered parking on Pearl Street. General admission is $7, $5 for students with school identification. The game will be played in the Corsair Pavilion, next to the football stadium.

Archer, 14-6 overall, is on a seven game winning streak, taking nine of ten division games to capture the Delphic League championship. It is the volleyball team's second league championship in the last four years. Last year's Archer team advanced to the semifinals of the CIF-SS 5AA playoffs, the furthest any Archer school team has gone in the playoffs.

Ten players return from last years squad, including six seniors. Archers top player is senior libero Lindsay Levesque, who averages an astounding 9.7 digs per set. Levesque, an All-CIF performer last year, ranks fifth in the nation in digs, as complied by nationally renown high school sports site, Maxpreps.com.

Bishop Union High School comes into the game with a 13-8 overall record, 5-5 in High Desert League play, third place. The school is the furthest school north in the CIF so-called "southern" section. The Broncos will take the 266 mile trip from the Inyo county to Santa Monica in hopes of knocking off the favored Archer team.  Bishop is lead by junior middle Brooke Callahan, a multi-sport star at the school nestled in the Sierra Nevada mountain range.  The school and Callahan are no strangers to long trips.  Callahan was also part of school team that combined with NASA scientists to launch a rubber chicken named "Camilla" to an altitude of 120,000 feet where it was exposed to high energy solar protons. "Camilla" survived the experiment, falling from space into the Inyo mountains where she was found by Bishop students, completing the rubber chicken circuit.

For more information on the Archer girls' volleyball prowess, view their season on Maxpreps.

Cross Country, Tennis and Middle School Teams Continue Successful Ways

Archer Athletic teams enjoyed another banner fall sports season. The varsity cross country team finished in third place in the highly competitive Alpha League, thus qualifying as a team in the CIF prelims. Varsity tennis will be sending a team to the CIF playoffs for the first time, as senior captain Chloe Mills and frosh standout Rachael Magnin advance through Delphic League play.

The success runs down into the middle school, where Archer teams compete in the 20 school Pacific Basin League (PBL). Archer's middle school volleyball teams both won first round playoff games and and have advanced to the quarterfinals, while the cross country team finished fourth at the PBL finals. However, it was the Archer Middle School swimming team that once again reached the top, winning PBL championship Saturday for the second year in a row!

Congratulations to Coach Ferri, Coach Cushman and the entire swimming team for bringing home the title, back to back!