Volleyball Vanquishes Venice

While every victory is sweet, but Palisades High setter Scott Vegas admitted there’s a little something special about beating archrival Venice. “The excitement is always greater, the emotions are stronger and the lows are lower,” he said. By the same token, the highs are higher when you win. So the Dolphins were on Cloud Nine after beating the host Gondoliers, 25-18, 25-22, 16-25, 25-18, to seize control of the Western League race and stake their claim to the No. 1 seed in the City playoffs. “The main reason we’re better is because of the La Jolla tournament,” Matt Hanley said. “That brought us up a whole level. If we continue to progress I don’t think there’s a team in the City that can beat us.” Palisades Coach Chris Forrest believes if his team can win its last three matches it will be as worthy of the No. 1 seed as any team in the San Fernando Valley’including Chatsworth. “We’ve beaten them [Venice] twice and they swept Sylmar in a nonleague match and beat El Camino Real in a tournament,” Forrest said. “Those are two of the best teams in the Valley so I definitely think that puts us in the conversation.” Jordan Cohen, who finished with four aces, got the Dolphins off and running with a five-point serving run in the first game. Vegas had four blocks and served six straight points as Pali built a commanding 13-8 lead in the fourth game. Hanley had 10 kills, Noah Kauss added seven and Taylor Savage finished with 10 digs. Baseball Palisades’ varsity remained undefeated in the Western League with a 10-0 victory at Fairfax–a game that was stopped after six innings because of the mercy rule. Brett Whalen went four for four with one RBI, Jake Kramer went two for two with a triple and one RBI and Garrett Champion added two hits for the Dolphins, who hosted Fairfax on Wednesday (result undetermined at press time). Buck Traweek (4-1) pitched a five-hitter with 10 strikeouts. Softball The Dolphins improved to 5-2 in league with blowout victories over LACES and University. Palisades scored eight runs in the bottom of the fifth inning in a 14-2 drubbing of the Unicorns last Monday, then scored seven runs in the top of the first inning of their 16-3 victory over the Wildcats on Thursday.