Lancers advance to quarterfinals with three-game sweep
Thousand Oaks will face second seeded Edison tomorrow night
By Kyle Jorrey kjorrey@theacorn.com

PATRICK SHELBY/Acorn Newspapers LANCERS HOLD COURT-Senior Cole Reinholm prepares to record one of his team-high 17 kills during Tuesday's victory over visiting Harvard-Westlake. Thousand Oaks won the match in three games, 25-21, 25-20, 25-19, and never trailed. Below right, middle blocker Cyrus Kiani slams one down past the outstretched arms of a Harvard-Westlake defender.

After they survived a grueling five-game match in the first round against lower-seeded Peninsula, it's difficult to blame members of the Thousand Oaks boys' volleyball team for wanting to get out of their second round match against HarvardWestlake in a hurry.

That's just what the Lancers did, plowing through the West Los Angeles private school in three games, 25-21, 25-20, 2519, to advance to the quarterfinals of the Southern Section Div. I playoffs. Thousand Oaks (26-4) will face Edison (27-5), the division's No. 2 team, tomorrow night in Huntington Beach at 7 p.m.

After the match, Jason Spangler, who finished off Harvard-Westlake with a powerful spike and a scream, said the Lancers are starting to look like the Lancers again.

PATRICK SHELBY/Acorn Newspapers

"When we're on, we like to control the match. We're the type of team, you give us a good ball, and we'll just put it away and we'll keep putting it away," said Spangler of the Lancers, who never trailed in any of the three games. "It just takes one."

Although it was the rocksteady Cole Reinholm who led the way with 17 kills and three blocks, it was Spangler who delivered the game's most exciting moments. Again and again, the senior outside hitter came up big when it looked like HarvardWestlake, which hales from the highly regarded Mission League, might swing the momentum.

His resounding one-timer at the net to begin the third match paved the way for a 5-0 Lancer start, and the beginning of the end for the visiting Wolverines.

Spangler said he wanted to infuse some excitement in the match after the Lancers cruised through game No. 2.

"I think we realized after the second game we were kind of down-we were playing like it was just a regular season game," said Spangler, who finished with 11 kills and three blocks. "I said to the guys, 'We need to give the fans a show. It's boring out there.' So we really came out in the third game things went really well." The Lancers again showed off

the versatility of their attack, which is led by setter Trevor Neff. Neff had 43 assists in Tuesday's game, setting up not only his two big guns, Reinholm and Spangler, but guys like Bryce Furlong, Cyrus Kiani and Evan Litchfield as well.

"Usually, you see teams that have one guy and they just keep feeding him the ball-that's not us," Spangler said. "Especially tonight we showed that our middles can come through for us when we need them to. If they get the ball, they know what to do with it. The diversity on our team is really good."

Tomorrow's match against the Edison Chargers is sure to be a test for the Lancers. Edison, which hasn't drop a game yet in the playoffs, went undefeated in Sunset League play and hasn't lost a match in a month. The Lancers did defeat them at the beginning of the season in two-straight games in a tournament in San Diego.

"That's doesn't mean anything because they could be a whole new team now," Spangler said. "We just have to come out, work hard, play our best and hopefully keep this thing going-because we have the talent to do it."