Coin Flip Lands Notre Dame in Playoffs

The team that had no home can get cozy and comfortable in the confines of the playoffs.

Notre Dame High, which played its first six league volleyball matches on the road, won a series of tie-breaking coin flips Saturday among three teams that tied for third place in the Mission League.

The Knights played on the road for a month because their gymnasium was used by the drama department for a play.

Notre Dame, Crespi and Alemany finished 6-6 in the league, but the Knights received the league’s third and last automatic berth to the Southern Section Division I playoffs, which begin Friday.

Crespi (9-7 overall) was designated the fourth-place team in the Mission League and has a shot at one of the two at-large bids to be awarded Monday to Division I teams.

Alemany (8-8), which lost four of its last five matches, was designated the fifth-place team and has no chance at the playoffs.

Notre Dame (8-8) started 1-4 in the league, but had momentum at the end.

The Knights won five of their final seven league matches, including victories over Crespi and Alemany.

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Middle blocker Christy Russell of Burroughs High has accepted a scholarship to Eastern Kentucky.

The 5-foot-8 Russell was an All-Foothill League selection and a second-team member of The Times’ All-Valley team.

Track and Field

Andrea Neipp of Highland High, the third-place finisher in the 1995 State Division I cross-country championships, missed the Golden League track and field championships at Quartz Hill on Friday because she was academically ineligible, thus ending her season.

Neipp, a junior, ran a personal best of 10 minutes 58.82 seconds to win the open 3,200 meters in the Arcadia Invitational on April 13. She clocked 10:22.94 to place sixth in the 3,000 in the Mt. San Antonio College Relays a week later, but was ruled ineligible after mid-semester report cards were released last month.

“I think she just let things fall by the wayside,” Neipp’s mother Mary said. “She has an awful lot of things going on in her life and I think things just got away from her.”

Softball

Three junior college teams from the region have earned berths in the Southern California softball regionals, scheduled to begin Friday.

Antelope Valley (33-15) is seeded eighth, the highest-seeded Foothill Conference representative. From the Western State Conference, Pierce (29-8-1) and Ventura (39-18) are seeded 10th and 11th.

Palomar (44-8) was seeded No. 1. Hancock (42-7) was the highest-seeded WSC team at No. 2.

Contributing: Mike Bresnahan, Darin Esper, John Ortega.