The Riverside Press-Enterprise
Baseline champ Upland having big year
Highlanders will likely be top seed for CIF-SS playoffs
UPLAND » If the perfect point in a volleyball match is a bump, set and spike, then the Upland boys volleyball team is about to go for its spike.
Baseline League champion Upland (32-3) was ranked No. 1 in the most recent CIF-SS Division 3 poll and is expected to be the No. 1 seed for the playoffs when the pairings are released Monday.
“I knew they were going to be really good,” coach Scott Robertson said. “I didn’t know we would be considered among the top 50 in the nation. I didn’t know we’d be that top tier, competing with CIF Southern Section top Division 1 teams.”
It’s been quite a season for the Highlanders, which included a late addition of a new coach, key transfers and senior leadership to be on track for a dream season.
It started with the hiring of Robertson as head coach. Robertson is currently in his second stint as Upland’s girls volleyball coach, which began in 2015. He also coached the boys previously before the program was eliminated before returning in 2017.
Robertson waited until the last minute to apply for the job in January and although he wanted to help, almost didn’t.
He wasn’t sure if he could devote enough time to it while fulfilling his other responsibilities and had to let the administration know about those responsibilities before accepting the job. That includes the girls volleyball team where he has one daughter, Madison, graduating this year and another Chloe, who has three years left. It also includes other family duties, such as a son who plays travel baseball.
Robertson had run into several boys players before the boys job was open, indicating they wanted to bring the boys and girls programs together.
“The boys came to me during the girls season and said, ‘hey, we want to bring this thing together. We know it’s been two separate pieces (boys and girls programs).’ Them wanting that, I felt it was time for me to step in and take the job,” Robertson said.
“I can’t ask for it to go any better. The girls support the guys and the guys supported the girls and it’s been wonderful to see how much it’s just merged together. I don’t feel like there’s jealousy between the two groups. It’s been almost as seamless as it could be.”
Upland was a league champion last year, but wasn’t ranked in the top 10 in CIF.
It’s changed with a strong group of existing senior leaders, like setter Jaden Kadongan and middle blocker/opposite Cian Slade. Transfers like senior outside hitter Jordan Lucas (Los Altos) and junior outside hitter/opposite twins Isaiah and Kai Vogel (Ontario Christian) have meshed well. Freshman setter Aiden Dufour transferred from Damien before ever playing a match there.
Lucas, who will continue playing next year at Grand
Canyon University, played for Los Altos his freshman year, winning a CIF-SS title. He continued to attend Los Altos but since then had strictly played club volleyball where he met Slade as a teammate with the club team, Pulse.
“When he (Lucas) decided to come here, I knew we were going to be really good,” said Slade, who himself transferred to Upland last year.
Because Lucas did not play high school volleyball last year, he did not need to serve the 30-day sit-out period most transfers, including the Vogels, have to serve.
Kadongan said that having Robertson, an on-campus coach, has helped. The previous coach, Jeff Obi, was off-campus.
“We never had sixth-period volleyball before, and that’s really helped,” Kadongan said.
Also helping is that Robertson had the right demeanor for the team. If Robertson has a young team that is low on varsity experience, he will coach with a heavier hand, structuring practices and giving firm directives in matches. But this is a veteran team that didn’t need such coaching.
“He knows how high a level we can play at and he’s a very mellow coach,” Slade said.
“They are extremely selfmotivated,” Robertson said. “I know these guys aren’t going to respond to heavyhanded yelling and screaming. And they don’t need it.”
Upland’s girls volleyball team is well known in CIF-SS, but when the boys team started going to tournaments this year and doing well, they got a lot of questions, like “where is Upland?”
If the opposition hasn’t learned where Upland is, they will for any playoff matches Upland hosts.
Lucas said it’s simple as to why the team is so successful.
“We have so many options on offense,” Lucas said. “We have four or five guys and most teams only have one.”
The next couple of weeks will determine whether Upland’s myriad options will be enough to bring home a CIF title.