Moorpark ends Lancers' long Marmonte League winning streak

THE SETUP-Above, Thousand Oaks' Deanna Elias, right, bumps the ball while teammate Tori Boden looks on. The Lancers lost to Moorpark in five games. Below, Ellen Querrey blasts a kill past a pair of Musketeer defenders. After losing its first two games to Thousand Oaks on Tuesday, Moorpark girls' volleyball coach Brendan Hanson asked his team if it wanted to go home.

The Musketeers eventually went home, but not before they won the next three games and pulled off an upset by beating the Lancers three games to two.

For Thousand Oaks, the loss was its first in the Marmonte League since 2004.

"I've been telling the team lately, even tonight, that someday if we keep playing flat, it's going to catch up with us," Thousand Oaks head coach James Park said. "And Moorpark is a good enough team to take advantage of that when we are playing poorly."

Although Park said he didn't like what he saw from his team the first two games of the night, the Lancers still won by scores of 25-20 and 25-14.

Thousand Oaks was close to putting Moorpark away in the third game when they tied the score at 21, but the Musketeers wouldn't go away.

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers BUMMER-Tori Boden of TOHS dives for a loose ball during Tuesday night's loss to Moorpark, the Lancers' first league defeat since 2004. Two big kills by Musketeer sophomore Rachael Kidder made the score 25-24. Chelsea Daley then won the game with a kill of her own to put MHS within a game of the Lancers.

Moorpark didn't have a let- down in the fourth game as it came back from an 18-16 deficit to win 25-21, highlighted by two huge kills near the net by Shannon Th- ompson to close out the game.

For the fifth and deciding game, Moorpark's crowd roared. The ex- treme noise seemed to give the Musketeers the confidence they needed as they won 15-12 when Thousand Oaks' Hannah Clancy hit a serve that went into the net.

"I do think the crowd was a factor, especially in the last game," Hanson said. "I think ev- ery team wanted to beat Thousand Oaks this year, and I think this game is a big one for our team moving forward."

Stepping up to have big games for Moorpark in their comeback win were Kidder and Daley, the coach said.

Kidder had 12 kills. Hanson said it seemed to be her coming- out party as she dominated in the final two games.

Daley's 25 kills led Moorpark.

"Chelsea has always been a very consistent player for us," Hanson said. "I've coached Chelsea since she was a sopho- more. I expect a lot from her ev- ery game and every game she de- livers. She's like Domino's Pizza she delivers so much."

Moorpark received solid con- tributions from its sophomores- Thompson and Teale McIntosh.

McIntosh had 25 digs for MHS. Junior Amber Bell also contributed 40 assists for the Musketeers.

"I told our team during one of the huddles we had to give the sophomores a huge hand because they played great for us tonight," Hanson said.

Now that Thousand Oaks' Marmonte League streak is fin- ished, Park said the Lancers will look to regroup and must focus on winning the league title. "I don't think we played very

well at all tonight," Park said. "I think we are too concerned about making mistakes and not being as aggressive as we should be. I don't think we communicated very well tonight and that will have to improve."

The loss dropped the Lancers' record to 4-1 in league and 7-2 overall. Moorpark's at 4-1 in league as well, and 13-4 overall.

The two teams will play each other again at Thousand Oaks on Oct. 26.