Pali Spikers Stay Hot

It won’t be this easy in the playoffs. At least that’s what Palisades High girls volleyball coach Chris Forrest keeps reminding himself with each easy win his team notches on its way to another Western League title. Defending a championship is supposed to be harder than winning it, but so far the Dolphins have looked unstoppable. They have yet to surrender a game in league play, sweeping their first five matches’the most impressive being a 25-23, 25-19, 26-24 triumph over beach rival Venice on October 2. On Monday, Palisades (7-1 overall, 5-0 in league) wrapped up the first round of league with a 25-18, 25-11, 25-18 victory over host Hamilton. Senior outside hitter Laura Goldsmith again led the Dolphins’ attack with 12 kills and junior middle blocker Hannah Fagerbakke added six. Tait Johnson, a junior libero, had 18 digs and Pali served 11 aces. Last Wednesday, the Dolphins barely broke a sweat against Westchester. In fact, the bus ride over took far longer than the match’a 25-2, 25-4, 25-9 whitewashing that was highlighted by junior Lauren Gustafson’s 10 service aces and freshman Meghan Middleton’s five kills in two games. Pali looks to keep its league mark perfect when it opens the second round of league with a home match this afternoon against University. Girls Tennis The Dolphins encountered their first bump in the road to a league title when they suffered a surprising defeat at the hands of visiting Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies last Tuesday at the Palisades Tennis Center. Palisades won all three doubles matches’dropping just three games in the process’but LACES swept all four singles pro sets to edge the Dolphins, 4-3, in the City’s head-to-head format. The next day, Pali righted the ship by knocking off host Hamilton, 5-2, with Anne Doyle and Jessie Corneli posting victories at #2 and #3 singles, respectively. A convincing win over Fairfax on Monday set the stage for today’s match at archrival Venice.