Spike City

Pali High Boys Volleyball Sweeps Birmingham to Defend Crown

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

Since the season began back in March, Palisades High’s boys volleyball team has been the team to beat in the City Section, but Chatsworth entered Saturday’s Open Division final believing it was the one team that could dethrone the Dolphins after playing them tough at the Dos Pueblos Tournament earlier in the season.

Instead, Palisades proved it is head and shoulders above the rest with a 25-11, 33-31, 25-18 sweep at Birmingham High for its record 15th City crown.

“We expected to get the best from them but our mindset was nothing drops, get every ball,” senior outside hitter Scott Stuart said. “It feels just as great as last year.”

Stuart is headed to TCU along with his twin brother Jeff, the Dolphins’ starting libero.

“We knew what they wanted to do against us but we didn’t have Scott last time. This is what we’ve wanted for four years and what  you remember most is the people you win it with.”

The outcome hinged on the second set, which was tight all the way until junior outside hitter Akhil Tangutur served an ace on

the Dolphins’ seventh set point to give them a commanding lead and demoralized the second-seeded Chancellors.

“Afetr what happened in our last match I wanted to be aggressive and go for it,” Tangutur said. “It’s hard to repeat when everyone wants to take you down, but we did it. They came out hard in the beginning, they were short serving us and trying different things but we we knew they’d eventually break down. It was similar to when we played them in Santa Barbara­ when they started off with a bunch of blocks but we trusted in our good defense that we would get some stops.”

After improving to 33-2 the Dolphins stamped themselves as one of the most dominant teams in City history, their only blemishes occurring in tournaments to Southern Section teams.

The celebration started moments after Mason Mallory hammered a left-side kill off the block on match point.

“We learned that we needed to start out strong and not come out flat,” said sophomore setter Miles Partain, who along with his older brother Marcus grew up across the street from middle blocker Justin Howard in the Alphabet Streets. “I tried to be more offense-oriented. It gives us an extra weapon and confuses blockers. We really missed Marcus (who was injured) this year, but I’m glad we still won and Mason, Jimmy Taylor and Nick Conte did great filling his spot.”

The Dolphins showed their mettle in the semifinals against El Camino Real, rallying from two sets down to prevail, 26-28, 25-27, 25-17, 25-10, 15-9.

Coach Carlos Gray has been coaching volleyball for 30 years, 20 at the high school level, and had to admit: “I believe this is the most talented team I’ve ever had.”