It wasn’t always pretty or artistic. At times, it looked like the Palisades High girls volleyball team was in for a long day. At other times, it was so overpowering it literally knocked Granada Hills backwards. Ultimately, the host Dolphins came away with a hard-fought, come-from-behind 3-2 victory.
After dropping the first set 26-24, PaliHi won the second set 25-21, but lost the third by the same score. The Dolphins then won the final two sets, 25-22 and 15-8.
First-year head coach Carlos Gray, whose team has five seniors but lost its three primary passers from last season, has stressed a balanced offense from the beginning.
“We don’t have that one big dominant outside player anymore,” Gray said. “We have to be balanced and everybody has to take swings. This team is still learning and understanding how to play together. Very few players are playing in the same position as last year, so it’s going to take us a while to gel and develop that consistency.”
Now 4-1 after losing their season opener to Marlborough, the Dolphins were buoyed by their confidence-building win over Granada Hills, their cross-city rival. Though there were several impressive individual efforts – senior outside hitter Brittany Schoellkopf had 14 kills, sophomore setter Delaney Arth had 31 kills and junior outside hitter Domineque Jeffords had four aces, all in the fourth set – this win was more about resilience and character.
“It shows that we have a little bit of heart and a little bit of fight in us, and that’s the most important thing in the world,” Gray said.
Echoing her coach’s sentiments, senior middle blocker Jennifer Krems, who was downright overpowering at times, said: “We came together and it feels great to work [as one unit]. This really gives us an idea of what we need to do [moving forward]. We’re working hard to get better and we know we can.”
Even in the third set, which the Highlanders eventually won by four points, the Dolphins showed their fighting spirit. Granada Hills built a seemingly comfortable advantages of 17-8 and 19-12, but PaliHi answered with an 8-1 run to tie the score at 20-20 before the Highlanders rallied back.
“Every play, it was something,” Granada Hills coach Tom Harp told the Daily News. “We couldn’t keep a lead. We couldn’t keep the momentum.”
In the fourth set, the Dolphins again had their backs against the wall early, trailing 7-1, but went on a 17-5 tear to go up 18-12 before finally putting the Highlanders away for good. They produced one final surge in the decisive set, breaking an 8-8 tie with a 7-0 run to close out the match, as Krems made a tip-in for the final point.
“This is a good win,” Arth said. “It shows we can fight and that we have a lot of fire, and we’ve got good players on this team. Today we were working together and pumping each other up.”
Asked whether the Dolphins could meet the Highlanders again down the road, Arth added: “I expect to see them in [the City Section] playoffs.”
For now, PaliHi will focus on its Western League schedule, which officially began at home on Tuesday against LACES. The Dolphins travel to face Venice on Monday before returning home to play Hamilton on October 3 at 2:30 p.m. in their league home opener.
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