The Palisades High girls varsity soccer team continued its dominance of the Western League last Friday by defeating visiting Venice, 5-0. The Dolphins were 22-2 last season and advanced to the Los Angeles City Section finals, where they lost 1-0 in double overtime to El Camino Real. They are 3-0 in league action this year and 4-1 overall. With Pali playing almost entirely on Venice’s side of the field, it wasn’t a question of scoring, but when and how many soccer balls the girls would put in the Gondoliers’ net. The first score came in the 17th minute after forward junior Marika Lundeberg took a shot that bounced off the goalie’s hands and was headed in by senior Katie van Daalen Wetter. Van Daalen Wetter scored with another header in the 24th minute off a corner kick from senior Lily McGuire, and junior Jacklyn Bamberger took a shot that rebounded to teammate sophomore Elizabeth Seeley, who buried it for a 3-0 halftime lead. Hampered by having no substitutes, the Gondoliers gamely tried to mount an offense in the second half, but were soon resigned back to defense to cover the continued offensive onslaught by the Dolphins. McGuire scored in the 55th minute and added a second goal five minutes later following a 50-yard breakaway. Center defender senior Sara Thorson, who is playing with more assurance this year, dominated a defense that rarely allowed the Gondoliers to play the ball beyond midfield. Palisades goalies Avid Khorramain (a junior) and freshman Annika Lundeberg touched the ball only four times each. ’We’re not as good as we were last year at this time, but I think we’ll win the Western League again,’ McGuire said. ‘We’ve added strong, new people to the varsity like Lauren [Phalee], Maddy [Meek], Ashley [Coreas] and Evelina [Van Norden] and we’re working them into our formation. Pali has endured coaching turmoil since last season. Coach Tianna Oliver was replaced this summer and after several false starts with coaches, Giulio Montalto (the girls’ JV volleyball coach), stepped in to helm the team. After defeating Taft, 6-1, and losing to Harvard-Westlake, 8-0, in non-conference games, Pali opened league play by blanking University, 4-0. At the end of the game, Montalto handed his keys to assistant coach John Lissauer and told him he quit. Lissauer, a longtime member of the PaliHi coaching staff, told the Palisadian-Post he was unsure about the real reason for the spontaneous resignation. He said that at the beginning of the game, he had advised Montalto that if the team won the toss, Palisades always starts on the east side of the field, because by the second half the setting sun creates a more difficult task for the goalie. When Montalto went against that advice, Lissauer went to chat with him and was told by Montalto, ‘This will be my last game.’ Lissauer coached the Dolphins to a 2-0 victory over Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies before David Matthews was hired before the Venice game. The British native has been coaching club for eight years, including the current girls U11 Blue Westside Breakers team. ’The biggest challenge with this team will be keeping the level of play high during league season,’ Matthews said. ‘We’ll need to keep high consistency in order to be ready for playoffs.’ After running practice with the team past week, he was pleased with the Dolphins’ performance. ‘We scored the first two goals off of things we worked on,’ Matthews said. The Dophin JV team will participate in a soccer tournament in San Pedro on January 2 and 3, and the varsity will compete in the same tournament the following weekend. League play will resume on January 11, with the varsity playing at Fairfax. Dolphins forward Marika Lundeberg dribbles into the open against Venice at Palisades High last Friday. Rich Schmitt/Staff Photographer
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