Spikers Raise Game, Sweep Carson

It’s amazing what a win can do for a team’s confidence. After a surprisingly easy sweep of visiting Carson in the second round of the City Section boys volleyball playoffs Tuesday night, Palisades players issued a warning to the team they figured to meet next, top-seeded Granada Hills: Don’t judge us by the No. 8 in front of our name. ”’The way we played tonight, I have a feeling we’re going to take the championship,’ said PaliHi senior middle blocker Brandon Bryant, who ended the match with an uncontested spike. ‘We just have to take it one game at a time, one point at a time. Granada Hills here we come.’ ”As expected, Granada Hills (14-1) won its match against University, setting up a quarterfinal date with the Dolphins (12-3) tonight at 7 p.m. in the Valley. And Bryant likes his team’s chances. ”’This is the first time all season that we’ve hit the ball for the whole match,’ said Bryant, who finished with nine kills and three blocks, including a stuff block with teammate Beck Johnson to end the second game. ‘A lot of times we’ve been inconsistent and gone away from playing aggressive. But we stuck with the plan all the way through tonight and you see the results.’ ”Matchups between eight and nine seeds are usually closer, but in this case the Dolphins were superior to the Colts (12-3) in every facet of the game, exploiting personnel matchups to maintain momentum and keep the noisy home crowd cheering. ”’We could definitely hear them when we won a point and it really fires you up,’ Bryant said of the home court advantage. ‘If we play Granada [Hills] next, that’s going to be a factor. We need to get off to a good start to take their fans out of it.’ ”Tuesday’s encounter was a rematch of a nonleague match back on March 7, when Palisades beat the host Colts, 27-25, 25-11, 22-25, 25-14. That time, Pali’s All-City setter Rusty Barneson had 21 assists, eight aces and three digs and Joey Sarafian added five kills, three digs, and three aces for the Dolphins. But the Colts were playing without their starting setter, so Pali prepared for a tougher match this time around. ”’Even though it was early in the season, I remember the last match well,’ said Palisades team captain Lucas Pols, who finished with five kills, three blocks and 10 digs. ‘They got better but we did too.’ ”Carson took an early lead in the first game Tuesday, but Pali caught up at 11-11 and never trailed thereafter. A stuff block by Bryant and a kill by Sarafian set up Barneson’s kill on game point. ”Barneson finished with 23 assists, six kills, seven digs and two aces. Just as important as his pinpoint passing, however, was the leadership he displayed on the court. Several times when the Dolphins seemed flustered and out of sync, he called timeouts to allow his teammates to regroup. ”Carson coach Tanner Morris said he prepared a similar gameplan for Tuesday’s match as he had used in the teams’ previous meeting but that Palisades changed its strategy this time around: ‘Give them credit. They were more consistent. They picked on spots that were weaknesses for us and did some things differently than they did the last time we played them. We can play a lot better, though’the spark just wasn’t there for us today.’ ”Palisades’ intensity Tuesday made up for a sloppy, lackluster performance against 25th-seeded Valley Alternative (6-3) in the first round last Thursday. Palisades won, 25-14, 20-25, 25-16, 25-22, but had trouble finishing off the Freeway League champion, a magnet school with only 200 students. ”’We treated that more or less like a warm-up match and it showed,’ Pols said. ‘We knew we had to play a lot better tonight to advance.’ Baseball ”Palisades’ varsity team bounced back from its first league loss of the season with a 7-4 victory at University on Monday. The Dolphins (14-5, 10-1) broke a 1-1 tie with five runs in the fifth inning, then held off a late Wildcats rally to remain in first place in the Western League, one game ahead of Westchester. ”David Bromberg, who normally wins games with an overpowering fastball and nasty offspeed pitches, had to rely more on sheer guts this time. After allowing a home run to Uni’s first batter of the game, Bromberg settled down to strike out 10 batters in six innings. He pitched out of bases-loaded jams in the fifth and sixth innings. ”Bromberg also hit a three-run home run over the right field fence to give Pali a 5-1 lead in the fifth inning. ‘It was a changeup that I hit off the end of the bat,’ Bromberg said. ‘There were two strikes and we had runners on, so I was just trying to shorten my stance, make contact and get a runner home.’ ”The victory did much to deaden the pain of Pali’s 6-5 loss at Westchester last Wednesday. The Comets scored the winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning. ”’You’d think losing that game would take the pressure off us trying to go undefeated, but actually there’s more pressure now because Westchester is right on our tail,’ Pali co-coach Tom Seyler said. ‘Everyone wants a piece of us, everyone’s going to play us tough.’ Boys’ Golf ”The Dolphins remained undefeated with two victories last week. First, Palisades (8-0-1) beat El Camino Real, 385-433, then it beat Granada hills, 391-439. ”Coach James Paleno’s squad is led by seniors Steven Chung and Jimmy Nissen, juniors Austin Curtis, Ben Seelig and Jason Weintraub, and sophomore Ashton Roberts. Softball ”Palisades (6-13, 3-7) posted its second league victory by scoring 11 runs in the first three innings, then hanging on to beat host Hamilton in last Thursday’s varsity game. Stephanie Torres had two hits with three RBIs, two runs scored and two stolen bases for Pali. ”Krystal Mitchell pitched a six-hitter with nine strikeouts and five walks. Second baseman Jenni Pineda caught a pop fly for the final out, ending the game with the tying and winning runs at second and third base for the Yankees. Boys’ Tennis ”The Dolphins’ varsity earned the No. 2 seed in the City playoffs and were awarded a first-round bye. Pali (15-4) hosted seventh-seeded Cleveland the quarterfinals on Wednesday (result unavailable at press time). If it was victorious yesterday, Palisades will host either sixth-seeded Taft or third-seeded Eagle Rock in the semifinals at 1 p.m. next Wednesday at Balboa Tennis Center in Encino. Track and Field ”The Dolphins beat host Fairfax at all four levels of competition. Pali’s girls varsity team won 52-27 to finish undefeated in league while the boys varsity (3-1-1) won 74-31 to finish second place in league behind Hamilton. Pali’s frosh/soph girls beat the Lions 67-26 while the frosh/soph boys won the most convincingly, 88-12.