Pali Squads Ready for Playoffs

Three out of four Palisades High varsity teams qualified for this week’s City Section playoffs. Boys’ soccer was fifth out of seven teams in the Western League and, for the first time Coach John Lissauer can remember in his 13 seasons, the Dolphins were not selected to the postseason tournament. Girls Soccer Having won the Invitational title last winter, Coach Kim Smith’s team has its eyes on a bigger prize this year. The Dolphins, who went undefeated in the Western League, earned the fourth seed in the City playoffs and will host 29th-seeded Manual Arts in the first round at 3 p.m. Friday at the Santa Monica Airport Park (located at 3223 Donald Douglas Loop S #3, Santa Monica, CA 90405. Should Palisades win tomorrow it would advance to next Wednesday’s second round to host either No. 20 Garfield or No. 13 Reseda. A loss on Friday drops the Dolphins to the Invitational bracket where they would host the Garfield-Reseda loser. Palisades (14-3 overall, 12-0 in league) has picked the perfect time to be playing its best soccer. The Dolphins enter Friday’s match on a eight-game winning streak during which they have outscored their opponents 41-2. They also have not allowed a goal in over three and a half games. Junior Erin Newman leads Palisades with 14 goals and three assists while senior Kelly Mickel and freshman Kathryn Gaskin each have 12 goals. Sophomore Emma Carter has tallied a team-best 17 assists and goaltenders Allison Kappeyne and Kiki Bailey have combined for nine shutouts. Manual Arts (6-5, 4-4) finished third in the Coliseum League. Boys Basketball Despite a third-place finish in the Western League behind co-champions Fairfax and Westchester, the Dolphins’ strength of schedule was enough to secure them fifth out of 16 teams in the City championship draw. Thus, Palisades (24-6 overall, 8-4 in league) will host 12th-seeded Cleveland in the first round Friday at 7 p.m. Should Palisades win it would either host No. 13 King-Drew (15-11) or travel to No. 4 Fremont (19-6), the Coliseum League champion, in a quarterfinal game next Wednesday. The Dolphins gave host Westchester all it could handle in their regular season finale before succumbing 63-57. Paleno needs one more win to notch victory No. 325 of his career. Aaron Hawk-Harris continues to lead the Dolphins in scoring at 15.4 points per game, followed by Irvin Kintaudi (12.4) and Josh Gilmore (11.2). Taylor Shipley is averaging 5.4 assists and 4.5 steals per game and Hawk-Harris is pulling down 8.8 rebounds per contest. The Cavaliers (19-7) were the runner-ups in the West Valley League behind Taft (21-3), the top seed in the tournament. Cleveland and Palisades share several common opponents. Both have victories over Beverly Hills, University and Knight of Palmdale, but Cleveland lost to Hart at the San Fernando Valley Invitational and Palisades beat Hart the next night. Girls Basketball Coach Torino Johnson’s squad was seeded fifth in the 24-team City Invitational bracket and received a bye in Tuesday’s first round. The Dolphins (15-12 overall, 6-6 in league) will host either No. 21 Franklin (9-10) or No. 12 North Hollywood (13-5) in the second round today at 7 p.m. Should Palisades win tonight it would advance to next Tuesday’s quarterfinals, where it would either host Tuesday’s Van Nuys-Eagle Rock winner or travel to fourth-seeded Marshall (13-11), which also had a bye in the first round. Junior Dominique Scott, who established herself as one of the premiere post players in the Western League this season, leads Palisades with 13.4 points and 13.4 rebounds per game. Tuekeha Huntley (10.7 and 8.9 rebounds per game) and Mariah Lyons (3.1 steals and 2.6 assists) are other key contributors for a team averaging 43.5 points. Palisades closed out the regular season winning three of its last four games, including a 66-48 victory over Westchester last Friday. Eagle Rock was third in the Northern League while Van Nuys finished fourth in the Sunset Six. The Dolphins lost to El Camino Real in the first round of the Invitational tournament last season.