BOYS’ SOUTHERN SECTION VOLLEYBALL PLAYOFFS : Royal Sweeps Notre Dame to Open Title Defense

Three players topped the double-figure plateau in kills as Royal High opened its run at a third consecutive boys’ Southern Section volleyball title Friday night with a 15-2, 15-2, 15-4 defeat of Notre Dame in a first-round game at Royal.

Royal, which has won two consecutive 2-A Division titles and is competing at the 3-A level this season, received a team-high 13 kills from Kevin Hambly and Scott Enright.

Aaron Kammerman added 10 kills and Mark Fiala had five kill blocks for the Highlanders (16-1), the top-seeded team in the division and winners of 15 consecutive matches.

Travis Ferguson had 51 assists for Royal. Notre Dame, which won a wild-card match Wednesday to qualify for the tournament, finished 13-5.

In other 3-A matches:

Crespi d. Montebello, 12-15, 15-5, 15-8, 15-9--Frank Romano had 27 kills and Tom Black added 17 for host Crespi (13-2) in a first-round match.

Canyon d. Upland, 15-8, 15-3, 15-3--Rob Trilk (eight kills), Joe Ferguson (six) and Troy Aldrich (six) paced third-seeded Canyon (14-1) to an easy victory at home.

Canyon setter Eli Contreras had 35 assists. Upland finished 13-2.

Harvard d. Camarillo, 15-7, 15-8, 15-3--Second-seeded Harvard (13-2) needed less than an hour to sweep visiting Camarillo (11-7).

Harvard’s Adam Davirro had 15 kills. Eric Wells and Andres Carlo added 10 and eight kills, respectively, and Steven Keck had three stuff blocks.

Hart d. St. Francis, 15-4, 15-5, 15-3--Will Cronk served eight consecutive points to give host Hart an 8-0 lead in the third game. Ken Brent led Hart (9-6) with seven kills.

4-A DIVISION

Glendale d. St. John Bosco, 15-1, 15-9, 15-13--Paul Severns had 13 kills and Jason Parkin added 10 to lead the Dynamiters (13-4) to a first-round victory over St. John Bosco (12-4) at Glendale.