Downey’s Elizabeth Aguilar (12) dives for the ball with Sienna Llamas (15) as they play Bellflower in their league girls beach volleyball match at Downey High School on Wednesday. Downey defeated Bellflower 5-0. (Photo by Keith Durflinger)

DOWNEY – With a 5-0 win over Bellflower High School Wednesday (April 1), the Downey beach volleyball team is nearing the end of the regular season in two weeks.

With the win, the Vikings improved to 12-4 overall and 8-1 in league and will try to avenge an earlier loss to Gahr (14-3, 7-1).

The chance for a league title will take place April 14 at Downey.

“They beat us, 4-1 and it was at Rosie’s (Dog Beach Courts) and they were better that day and we’re hoping to keep them in our sights,” said fourth-year Downey coach Shawn Patchhell. “We get Gahr here on our home courts. That’s what you want.”

In the Bellflower match Wednesday, all five Downey pairs won in straight sets.

Here are the results of each pairs:

No. 1’s – Downey - Elizabeth Aguilar (SR)/Sienna Llamas (SR) defeated Bellflower - Natasha Devaul/Bella Aragon, 21-13, 21-6.

No. 2’s – Downey - Jannin Vilchis (SR)/Denise Gonzalez (SO) def. Bellflower – Abigail Imaysay/Francheska Del Rosario, 21-9, 21-12.

No. 3’s – Downey – Samantha Garcia (FR)/Mia Tejeda (SR) def. Bellflower – Martha Flores/Samantha Camacho, 21-9, 21-8.

No. 4’s – Downey - Breann Cevallos (SO)/Kani Long (SO) def. Bellflower – Irene Machado/Natalia Campos, 21-9, 21-11.

No. 5’s – Downey – Hannah Park (FR)/Brianna Nunez (SO) def. Bellflower – Jane Aziz/Jessica Nandha, 21-12, 21-16.

Playing on the two courts, the 2’s and 4’s started the match off, followed next by the 3’s and 5’s and ended with the 1’s and an exhibition match between the 6’s.

With the 3’s (Garcia/Tejeda) win, that gave the Vikings the win, as they took a 3-0 win in the best of five matches.

As for senior Mia Tejeda, Patchell said, “She was our 1’s player last year and played in the (league) finals and was undefeated in league,” he said. “In the finals they lost a heartbreaker and then she hurt her knee in Club (Volleyball).

“She’s coming back from an ACL injury. She’s a great leader, a great kid and works really hard. We are slowly working her back in and this is the first week actually she has played two matches. Some (college) coach is going to get a gem.”

One of his players, Alyssa Urita, that was hurt was sitting out the match and was their 1’s player. “We’re giving her some time off and will be ready against Gahr,” Patchell said.

Urita, a setter, will be playing at Long City College next year.

“In beach (volleyball) we call it step shuffle and if you can do that in the sand, it feels like fast motion indoor,” explained Patchell, of the footwork in sand. “This coupled with our strength and conditioning coach, we just keep getting better and better.”

Patchell, who moved to New York prior to coming to Downey, developed an indoor volleyball program at Long Island University.

His son Kai Patchell, who stands 6-7, played at Laguna Beach and is currently a freshman at Manhattan University in New York. He plays Outside and the Opposite positions.

In the feature 1’s match, the team of Aguilar/Llamas started off the first set and trailed mid-set, 12-11, before they took control.

They finally took a 14-12 lead and scored the next four points to lead, 18-13. They finished off the set winning the final the final three points.

In the second set, holding an early 4-3 lead the two seniors won the next 17 of 20 points to win, 21-6.

Leading, 9-3, Aguilar made a diving save to hit the ball over the net for the point to lead, 10-3.

Both Aguilar (most recently) and Llamas have been named Vikings athletes of the week this season.

“They are two of my favorites,” said Patchell, of Aguilar and Llamas. “You can tell them that I told you that.”

Aguilar ended the 2-0 sweep with an ace.

“I think we (Aguilar and Llamas) are quiet, but still manage to pull through games and read each other and know where to go,” Aguilar said. “To be athlete of the week in practice showing that I wanted to win on the 1’s team and do what coach wanted me to was important. And also we won two matches.

“My partner Sienna understands me well and we don’t get mad at each other.”

Aguilar played all four years on varsity on the indoor team.

Llamas, who has also played indoor for all four years said, “Even if it’s a bad play, we don’t dwell on it,” she said. “Communication between partners definitely helps.

“We are very quiet, but we do find a way to communicate. We know what we’re doing.

Coach is very calm about his communication with us and he definitely is more relaxed in Beach. He is very encouraging and he is there to guide us.

“As seniors we have all played together since our freshman year and it’s nice to have that bond and all played club together.”

As for the upcoming Gahr match, she said, “I think we can definitely beat them. We just need to slow it down.”

The two sophomore No. 4 pairs – Cervallos/Long – will be playing on the outside next season on the indoor team and were valuable in the match against Bellflower, easily winning both sets.

“As a freshman (last year), I never have thought that I would be on varsity as a sophomore,” Cevallos said. “I feel like I improved a lot.

“Playing on sand definitely helps us to jump higher.

“The match against Gahr will be really big.”

As for coach Patchell she added, “He definitely helped me become a better player. As a freshman last year on both indoor and beach he helped me a lot.”

Cevallos’ partner, Kani Long added, “I knew that I would be playing indoor in high school and I found out that after the indoor season there was a Beach team,” she said. “I think to find out that I will be playing starting outside in the indoor season is very flattering now. If I’m down on myself it’s great to have that in my back pocket to know that I’m valued.

“It’s great playing for coach and he keeps it a calm spirit. It’s very exciting and we have morning workouts on the Beach team. Just to go on the court every morning and to be able to let go of any school responsibilities is a great way to start the morning with a nice workout before school.”

After the regular season ends, they will hold a league tournament, which will be a pool play format April 16 at Rosie’s Beach Courts. That will decide the individual league championships. The top two individual pairs will go to CIF. The top three or four teams in league will qualify for CIF playoffs.

“The fact that we have this beautiful facility, that (Athletic Director) Mark Rand and (Principal) Tom Houts had the foresight to have beach volleyball courts,” Patchell said. “They did it right.”

Patchell, who started his coaching career at Laguna Beach, was a member of BYU’s first NCAA Volleyball team (1990-’93) and later became the head coach and also played professionally in Spain.

Asked how much he enjoys what he does, Patchell simply said, “I’m doing two things that I love, teaching English and coaching volleyball.”

Downey boys sweep Warren

The Downey boys volleyball team, with a 3-0 sweep of Warren in a Gateway League match, improved to 11-5 overall and remain undefeated in league with a 5-0 record.

The Vikings won 25-20, 25-20, 25-19 in a closely fought match Tuesday (March 31) at Warren.

Leading the way for the Vikings was senior outside Shane Costello (5 Aces, 13 Digs) and sophomore middle blocker Taylor Caldwell with 11 kills each and senior outside Matthew Ruiz with eight.

Senior setter Andrew Perez (5 Aces, 7 Digs) and freshman setter Jeremy Borjas (6 Digs) had 18 and 14 assists, respectively for the Vikings.

Junior outside Rafael Velasco and senior libero Guillermo Alvarez added seven and five digs, respectively for Downey.

“We passed pretty consistently throughout the entire game and that led to a strong foundation where we could utilize all the weapons we had on the court,” Downey assistant coach Matt Borlongan said. “Our players have put in a lot of work this year to get these results.”

With the loss, Warren slips to 3-2 in league and 8-10 overall.

Downey has three remaining Gateway League matches remaining, while Warren has four matches remaining, which includes three league matches.

Warren High did not submit stats or a roster to this newspaper.

Downey beach volleyball sweeps Bellflower, eyes league title