Lancers girls’ volleyball squad sends a message with easy win over Westlake

BILL SPARKES/Acorn Newspapers ALL-OUT EFFORT—Westlake’s Jillian Lane hits the floor vs. T.O. In a match that had been billed as a showdown between the top two girls’ volleyball teams in the Marmonte League, the Thousand Oaks Lancers left little doubt that they are the frontrunners for the league title with a three-game victory (2519, 25-18 and 25-22) over the Westlake Warriors Tuesday night.

Deanna Elias fueled the Lancer victory with 12 kills and 24 digs. Kristen Berthiaume added 12 kills and 21 digs, while Tori Boden had 10 kills and nine digs for T.O. (9-1, 7-0).

Westlake (12-3, 5-1) was led by Kelsey Kaehler’s 10 assists and Jillian Lane’s nine kills and nine digs. Cathy Quilico added 11 assists, one block, 15 digs and one kill for the Warriors.

“(Thousand Oaks) played really well,” Westlake head coach Ernest Rittenhouse said. “That’s a very good all-around team. They pass and they serve tremendously well. It’s very hard to go against a team that plays that good. I give them a lot of credit.”

Lancer head coach Yariv Lerner said the win was a total team effort.

“If you look at our stats we have players hitting the ball all over the place and that helps us a lot,” Lerner said. “Some teams have just one player, but we have balance.” ver Westlake

Lerner pointed out Elias, Berthiaume, Amanda Snyder and Keri Reinholm as playing particularly well in the victory.

Thousand Oaks opened up sizable scoring gaps in both of the first two games before breezing to victory. The third and final game, however, saw four lead changes and 10 ties before the Lancers scored the final three points of the game following a 22-22 tie late in the game.

“It was a real important win for us,” Elias said. “Westlake is our rivals and the game is always big with a lot of fans. It was good to beat them the way we did.”

Elias added that the victory also establishes T.O. as the team to beat in the Marmonte.

“Everyone expected this to be a close game but we took them out in three,” she said. “That kind of puts us ahead.”

Westlake’s Tawny Summers said her team didn’t respond very well to the pressure of a big match against top competition.

“There was a lot of pressure,” Summers said. “They’re the No. 1 team to beat and I think our nerves kind of took over.”

The senior outside hitter added that she was proud of the way her team fought back in the deciding game rather than go out quietly.

“We just didn’t want to give up because anything is possible,” Summers said. “If you try your hardest and don’t let your nerves take over and everyone works as a team, it can be done. We’ll try to do that the next time we play T.O.”