The History of PV’s Athletic Dominance Over Peninsula
Statistics above (from left to right): Football, Girls Volleyball, Boys Basketball, Boys Water Polo, Boys Soccer, and Boys Lacrosse. Statistics from Max Preps. (Graphic by Vikesh Dheeriya)
Palos Verdes High School has always been considered the “sports” school in the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District (PVPUSD), but really how accurate is this generalization?
According to the statistics, PV dominates.
For most sports, PV usually ranks multiple CIF divisions higher than Peninsula (Pen), but is required to play against them because of the Bay League rules. These rules state that each sport must play schools within our league no matter the division to compete for a Bay League Championship at the end of the season.
The Bay League high schools are Palos Verdes, Peninsula, Redondo Union, Mira Costa, Culver City and Santa Monica. So no matter the CIF division, usually sports will have to play these teams at least once or twice a year. These rules cause the biannual rivalry matchup of PV vs Pen in every sport.
As the most popular high school sport, PV football dominates Peninsula. PV has won every single game played in the past 12 years by an average of 32.7 points. On the Oct. 29 PV vs Pen football game, the 34-0 blowout served as a reminder of this historical dominance.
Because boys water polo and lacrosse are the highest ranked sports at PVHS, nobody is surprised at their dominance against Peninsula . Water polo has won 17 straight games against Pen by an average of 8.4 goals. Lacrosse has won 11 of their last 12 games by an average of 11.4 goals.
This Sea King superiority also extends to the Sea Queens. Girls volleyball has only lost one set to Peninsula in the last five years, winning 11 out of their past 12 matches by an average of 2.3 sets.
PV’s winning attitude transfers to boys soccer who has only lost two of their past 17 matches to Peninsula.
However, scores become much closer when the Kings and the Panthers step on the basketball court. Peninsula has won 18 of the last 22 matches by an average of 6.9 points.
Peninsula has also historically beaten PV at swimming and are usually at the top of Bay League.
Palos Verdes and Peninsula High School both excel academically, but when it comes to sports, the stats don’t lie.
This is Vikesh's third year on The Point staff. He loves playing water polo, winning in fantasy football, and is a lifeguard at PVBAC.