St. Margaret's boys volleyball program took the first step towards its fourth CIF Southern Section Championship, defeating visiting Millikan High School 3-0 Thursday evening.

The No. 3 Tartans had to focus their efforts on dispatching a stubborn Ram squad in the first round of the CIF-SS Div. III playoffs. Keys to the win included team passing (serve receive), blocking, and team defense. The Tartans achieved a season-high serve receive rating of 2.5 (3-point scale), more significant than the benchmark of 2.0. The team blocking was much more effective than merely the stat line (8 team blocks), generating a lot of touches and deflections - and altering the attack of Millikan.

Overall, St. Margaret's team hitting percentage (.360 ) was very strong. Reed Wainwright led again with 17 kills (.361), followed by Beckett Harvey with 11 kills (.588) and Luke Balint with 9 kills (.353).

The Tartans will travel to Burbank to face Burroughs High School in round 2 on Saturday, April 27, at 6 p.m.