It certainly was a strange ending to a highly successful season for the Westlake High boys' volleyball team.

The Warriors took on Loyola last Saturday night in the final of the inaugural Division I CIF Southern California Regional Volleyball Championships without their seniors, who were attending the school's prom on the same evening.

Devoid of its big guns and feeling somewhat slighted, Westlake lost in three games by scores of 15-25, 19-25 and 21-25.

"We played with half of our JV team," WHS head coach Doug Magorien said.

According to Magorien, Westlake requested that CIF move the title tilt to earlier in the day or to a different night, but those requests were denied.

Two matches were played prior to the Division I final at Capistrano Valley High.

"We offered to play the match at Loyola or move anywhere else at any time," the coach said. "We told them we'd do whatever we could. Every time, the answer was, 'No. No. No.'"

Marie Ishida, executive director of CIF, said Westlake should have opted out of its tournament invitation if the team couldn't commit to playing in all three matches—the Warriors beat Granada Hills and La Costa Canyon to reach the final.

Sage Hill pulled out of the Division III tournament the night before its first-round match, she added.

"The schedule is printed well in advance," Ishida said. "We expect our coaches who might be in the Championships to look at that schedule.

"We would've hoped that if there was an issue, they would have notified us at the time of the seeding. . . . If you're going to commit, you need to commit for the duration of the tournament."

According to Ishida, the CIF office in Northern California received a request to possibly change the match time for Saturday's Division I final only after Westlake had won its firstround contest on Tues., June 2.

At that point, Ishida said, it was too late to reorganize the title matches.

"Not only do we have the two teams involved at the Division I level," she said, "but we've got other teams that had probably already made transportation times.

"There are also all of the volunteers, the site secured, the officials and so forth."

While disappointed with the outcome, Magorien, who led the Warriors to a CIFSouthern Section Division II crown, took responsibility for the mix-up.

"Granted, I'm not happy with CIF, but I have to blame myself because winning that (tournament) wasn't on our goalpriority list," Magorien said.

"We were playing our best volleyball at the end of the season and would've loved to have played Loyola at full strength. That would have been great."