ROYAL CITY - Royal High learned last week that the historically toughest teams in South Central A Conference East volleyball remain the same.

The Connell Eagles took out the Knights in three games, and they were not close. The finals were 25-9, 25-11 and 25-9.

"Not much to say. Connell is a very good team," Royal coach Paul Olsufka said.

Two nights later, Burbank won in four games on the Burbank floor. The lone close game was the one Royal won, 29-27. Burbank won 25-13, 25-10 and 25-16.

"Game two was very exciting. The girls never gave in and battled to win," Olsufka said. "We just need to put a complete set of games together to come out on top for the match."

Tonya Iverson was Royal's leader against Connell. She went 8-9 in serving, served two aces and had three digs and one kill.

Kayla Smith went 6-6 serving with 1 ace, 3 digs 2 blocks and 1 kill. Seila Jenks had 4 digs. Morgan Small went 5-5 serving with 1 block, and Tahlia Ledezma served 5-5 with 1 ace and 3 assists

Iverson was big again against Burbank. She served 13-15 and came up with two aces, five digs, one block and three kills.

Smith had 8 digs, 1 block and 5 kills. Allie Janett went 6-7 serving with 1 ace. Morgan Small served 8-8 with 5 digs

Ledezma produced 10 assists. Rebecca Lee went 6-6 serving with 1 ace and 1 kill, and Katie Ellis was 4-4 serving.

"The girls are working very hard to compete every time they take the court, always expecting to win," Olsufka said. "The scores may not always be close, but I am very proud of their efforts. I, as a coach, need to work harder to get the best out of my athletes. Our goal continues to be participation in post season play."