Spikers Show Spartan Will

The Palisades High girls’ varsity volleyball team was hoping for a stiffer challenge in the second round of the City Section playoffs Monday night. The Dolphins got their wish–and then some. Behind the serving of senior Megan Chanin, sixth-seeded Palisades opened the fifth game with four consecutive points and went on to defeat No. 11 Sylmar, 25-9, 18-25, 25-18, 24-26, 15-7. At first it appeared Pali would breeze past the Spartans the way it did in a three-game sweep earlier in the season. But after the Dolphins won Game 1 convincingly, setter Kaylie McCallister sprained an ankle and had to sit out the second game. Christine Kappeyne, who was brought up from the junior varsity team for the playoffs, performed admirably in McCallister’s place but the Dolphins lost the second game. With McCallister back, Pali rebounded to take the third game, with Jenna McCallister ending it on a kill. The forth game went back and forth until Sylmar took a 24-23 lead. Teal Johnson’s touch kill over a two-player block tied the game, but the Spartans won the next two points to level the match and force a fifth game. “We came into this match a little blind,” PaliHi coach Matt Shubin admitted. “They [Sylmar] aren’t the same team we played two months ago. “We tried to do the same things but they played much better defense and switched some players around on us.” On Wednesday, the Dolphins traveled to third-seeded Verdugo Hills for a quarterfinal match (result unavailable at press time). If victorious, Palisades would either host seventh-seeded University or travel to second-seeded Taft in the semifinals next Tuesday. Verdugo Hills is led by All-City hitter Crystal Perryman, but Spartans coach Bob Thomson said the Dolphins match up well with the Dons. “If they can get No. 14 (Alex Lunder) to neutralize Perryman, I give Pali a good chance because I think they are more balanced. Verdugo is pretty one-dimensional.” In their first round match last Thursday, the Dolphins needed less than an hour to defeat 27th-seeded Eagle Rock, 25-9, 25-20, 25-11. Shubin said he’d prefer his squad play better teams like Venice because “it exposes what are weaknesses are and we can see what we need to work on.”