Westlake girls make volleyball finals

Special to The Acorn


MICHAEL COONS/The Acorn  GOING HIGH--Danielle Weiss of Westlake spikes the ball over during last Thursday's CIF playoff game with Santa Barbara.

MICHAEL COONS/The Acorn GOING HIGH–Danielle Weiss of Westlake spikes the ball over during last Thursday’s CIF playoff game with Santa Barbara.

The Westlake girls’ volleyball team beat Canyon of Anaheim 3-0 Tuesday night to advance to the final playoffs of the California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section Division II-AA.


The Warriors (Marmonte League, No. 1, 22-3) will play the Newport Sailors (Sea View League, No.1, 22-4) this Sat. at 1 p.m. at Cypress College. They beat the visiting Comanches (Century League No. 3, 15-11), by scores of 15-13, 15-11 and 15-13.


Team member Rachael Smith said Westlake went into the game with a goal of playing its best game, hoping it would bring a victory.


"We are not sure what we’re going up against," she said. "It’s the semifinal and we want to win, but we’re not expecting anything out of it. Some of us are more confident than others. Some are superstitious."


Last Saturday in the quarterfinals, Westlake beat Troy (Freeway League, No. 2) at Fullerton, 3-0, while Canyon nipped Woodbridge, 3-2.


The road to sweeping Troy for Westlake wasn’t without challenges.


Westlake won the first two games––15-10, 15-8. In the third game, Troy (12-7) pulled ahead 10-1 and appeared ready to triumph. But Westlake roared back for a 15-13 win.


Last Thursday in the opening round, the Warriors turned back the visiting Santa Barbara Dons (Channel League, No. 3), 3-1, on scores of 15-6, 15-11, 12-15 and 15-10.


Head coach Doug Magorien is pleased with his team.


"The kids won the Marmonte League and haven’t taken their eyes off the target," he said. "The ultimate goal is to win CIF. These are tough games.


"I thought we played well against Troy," he added. "They came out battling from the start. They didn’t have the big dominant blocker that Santa Barbara did."


The team came together as a unit. Courtney Wade led the comeback and Brittany Prater, Jessica Harper and Rachel Smith provided solid support.


"We had bigger players than Troy did," Magorien said. "I don’t think we really knew what we were expecting. We didn’t want to come into it too confident."


Smith, comparing the Santa Barbara and Troy teams, said she thought that Santa Barbara was stronger in blocking and was better in team control.


Wade agreed with Smith that Santa Barbara was a tough opponent.


"I thought we could handle it, but I think we could all breeze through the first round," she said of the match against the Dons. "But once we started playing, we realized that we had to play (to win). They brought a lot out of us. It was a good competition for us to start off the playoffs.


Particularly difficult for Westlake in the Santa Barbara game was getting the ball past the quick hands of Nora Miller.


"We’re used to having our ball go straight down and it was a big shock that it was coming right back at us," Wade said. "We needed to change our way of playing to accommodate their way of playing."


Magorien said that Jullian Lane, who came in to help stop the Dons, was a key to the opening round win.


Lane hadn’t expected to play, so it was a surprise when the coach told her to take the floor.


"I didn’t have a lot of time to talk myself into it," she said. "He said, ‘You’re going in.’ I wasn’t really thinking about it that much."


And as for being up against Miller, Lane said, "Hitting around her was especially difficult. I’m not used to being outside actually. It was really hard to go around the block."




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