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Sports

Pali High Volleyball Sweeps into Final

The Dolphins defeat Venice 25-20, 25-9, 25-13 in the City semifinals.

Even though her team had decisively defeated Venice twice in play, senior setter Meghan Middleton was a little wary of facing the Gondos a third time in the City Section Division II semifinals.

In the end, though, the Dolphins simply had too many weapons for Venice to defend and easily advanced to the City finals for the fourth time in five seasons with a 25-20, 25-9, 25-13 victory Tuesday night.

"I didn't necessarily want to play them because it was a similar situation last year and I didn't want history to repeat itself--the wrong way," said Middleton, who finished with 22 assists. "It was really important to win the first game and they brought a lot of fans and were right there with us, but they broke down at the end."

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The Dolphins swept Venice twice in league play, winning 25-10, 25-8, 25-18 at home on Sept. 26 and 25-20, 25-18, 26-24 Oct. 17 at Venice. The roles were reversed last season when Palisades dropped both league meetings before rebounding to upset the Gondos in four sets in the semifinals.

Junior outside hitter Katie Kaufman said drawing Venice again worked to the Dolphins' advantage.

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"I was happy to play them. I knew we were able to beat them because we've done it before," Kaufman said. "Our coach is familiar with their offense so we knew it like the back of our hands."

The first set was tied 16-16 when Molly Kornfeind stepped to the line to serve and hit back-to-back aces to put the Dolphins ahead to stay. Shanna Scott's kill got them to set point and Kornfeind ended it with a thunderous spike from the left side.

Palisades built a 14-3 lead in the second set and a 10-1 lead in the third set before closing out the match on Scott's kill. The top-seeded Dolphins will face second-seeded Taft for the championship Saturday at . The Toreadors beat Fairfax 16-25, 25-21, 27-25, 25-23 in Tuesday's other semifinal.

"Palisades is as good as advertised," said Venice Coach Allen Hunt, who has seen enough of the Dolphins this season. "The ability they have to control the ball is extraordinary. Even when we knew what was coming we couldn't stop it. That's the best team in the City. They would win Division I, Small Schools, whatever. I expect them to sweep whoever they play in the finals."

Kornfeind had 14 kills, 11 digs, three aces and hit .420 while Scott added 14 kills, nine digs, two aces and hit .520. Kaufman had seven kills, Brittany Butts had 16 assists and libero Maddie Hausberg had six digs.

"Venice brought their 'A' game and we played our 'B-minus' game in the first set," Palisades Coach Chris Forrest said. "I knew they couldn't keep it up the whole match and we just had too much for them. You can never discount [Taft Coach] Arman Mercado. I'm sure he'll come up with something but we played them in summer league and I think we match up pretty well."

Kaufman doesn't expect nerves to be an issue heading into the final against Taft, which upset the Dolphins in the Division II semifinals two years ago.

"Going into the final you see the finish line, you're in the zone," she said. "We know what to do, so I don't think we'll be nervous."

CITY SECTION PLAYOFFS

DIVISION II

Semifinals

Set Scores

1

2

3

4

5

Final

Venice

20

9

13

--

--

0

Palisades

25

25

25

--

--

3

Records: Venice 18-16; Palisades 21-12.

(Note: The City Section Division II final is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Roybal Learning Center in Los Angeles.)

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