Westlake netters can't overcome injuries, Agoura
By Stephen Dorman sdorman@theacorn.com

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers YOU CAN'T TOUCH THIS- Westlake High's Scott Kevorken, right, fires a return at Agoura's Michael Hatch during the second game of Monday's match at AHS. The Chargers prevailed in four games.

For the third time this season, the Agoura High boys' volleyball team got the better of its rivals from Westlake.

The Chargers' latest victory over the Warriors came Monday night at home in front of a raucous pro-Agoura crowd. After dropping the first game of the evening, AHS rebounded to win the next three games and take the match (16-25, 25-18, 25-14, 25-23).

Agoura, in the midst of its finest regular season under nine-year head coach Marla O'Hara, improved to 8-3 in the Marmonte League. The loss dropped the Warriors' record to 4-6 in league. Both teams played Wednesday night, but scores weren't available prior to press time.

O'Hara said she was pleased to see the Chargers fight through a sluggish start.

"Westlake has a bunch of injuries, and I think we might have been complacent about that," O'Hara said. "They came in ready to go and just rolled over us in the first game.

"It was a wake-up call for us. I made a few changes in the lineup, and, the next thing you know, we got back on track, the energy level rose, and we made fewer mistakes. The offense really picked it up after that."

Westlake head coach Doug Magorien said the Warriors' inconsistency against Agoura was a microcosm of the team's season as a whole.

"We haven't been able to maintain any level of consistency," Magorien said. "I'd like to say it's because we're missing four starters . . . but Agoura played really well, and they deserve credit for being so solid."

Because of injuries, WHS was without outside hitter Jake Kneller and opposites Keats Stanley and Chris Balay. Senior outside hitter Jake Gregoire also missed the match because of academic issues.

"It just hasn't been our year," Magorien said, "but I was still really pleased with the way we played."

Junior middle blocker Scott Kevorken led Westlake with 18 kills and four aces. Senior outside hitter Jake Tracy added 16 kills and four aces, and senior setter Thomas Gaulke added five kills for the Warriors.

Tyler Brennen was in top form for the Chargers. The senior opposite recorded 18 kills and four digs in leading his team to victory.

"We've never really had success against Westlake," Brennen said. "With half of our team being seniors, it's great for the program to finally have some success against these guys."

In the decisive Game 4, Agoura fell behind 9-4 before mounting a comeback to tie things at 9-9. The teams went back and forth until a scoring error awarded Westlake an extra point to make the score 22-20 in favor of the Warriors.

Rather than allow the scoring discrepancy to negatively affect their performance, the Charger players used the incident as motivation and scored five of the next six points to clinch the victory.

Brennen recorded the matchclinching kill.

"We had a twopoint deficit after the scoring mistake, and we knew it was crunch-time," Brennen said. "That's when we really started to put some balls away and made some outstanding digs.

"But the real reason we won that last game was because when we got down by five or six points, (senior defensive specialist) Jeff Alper came on with a big serving streak. That really helped us get back into the game emotionally."