Gene’s Team Wins Qualifier

Gene Selznick’s 16-and-under girls club volleyball team won its second Junior Olympic Qualifying Tournament last weekend, rallyied from deficits of 20-9 and 24-20 in the first game to defeat Thousand Oaks Point West, 26-24, 25-12, in the championship match of the Southern California Junior Olympics Qualifier in Anaheim. Gene’s Team also won the Northeast Qualifier in Baltimore three weeks ago, beating the top-ranked team in the country in the semifinals and ousting Fusion of Chicago in three games in the finals. By finishing first out of 48 teams nationwide, Gene’s Team became the No. 1 ranked 16s team in the nation. The squad has posted a 49-2 record so far this season, with its only two losses coming against 18-and-under opponents at a tournament in Las Vegas. ‘This is the best team I’ve ever had,’ said Selzick, who started coaching girls club teams in 1986. ‘We won the east and we won the west, so that means we’re the best. We haven’t lost in California yet and we’ve been playing mostly 18s tournaments.’ Gene’s Team consists of four Palisadians: setter/hitter Kelly Irvin, middle blocker Audrey Eichler, defensive specialist Kendall Bird and Palisades High sophomore middle blocker Alex Lunder. Rounding out the squad are Cathy Quilico, a libero from Westlake; outside hitters Alex Ayers (Playa del Rey) and Alex Johnson (Westlake); middle blocker Jessie Yeager (Thousand Oaks); and setter Megan Tryon of Westchester. Finishing third in the 16s division in Anaheim was Sunshine Volleyball Club, coached by Lou Ann Selsky and Carrie Busch. Consisting of Palisadians Ani Mardirossian (an outside hitter from Marymount High), Madison Wojciechowski (a libero from Marymount), Katherine Sebastian (a setter from Harvard-Westlake), Bridget Hearst (an opposite hitter from Notre Dame Academy) and Emily Hamilton (a setter at Lighthouse Christian Academy), Sunshine upset top-seeded Golden Bear of Northern California in pool play before falling to Point West in the semifinals. Both Gene’s Team and Sunshine Volleyball Club qualified for the Junior Olympics, held June 29-July 6 in Salt Lake City, Utah.