Warriors won't be denied

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers TERRIFIC TEAM—The Westlake High players and coaches celebrate Saturday's victory over Royal in the CIF-Southern Section Division II title match at Thousand Oaks. WHS won in five games. It was an electric atmosphere for a classic CIFSouthern Section boys' volleyball title match between a pair of Marmonte League co-champions.

With the Thousand Oaks High gymnasium crammed to capacity last Saturday night, the decibel level rising with each passing point, Westlake and Royal staged an alltime battle for CIFSS Division II supremacy.

The finale had it all—familiar foes going back and forth, fanatical fans chomping at the bit, tooclose-for-comfort calls by the refs, the impossible comeback and, of course, a thrilling, whiteknuckle finish.

"Never in my life have I played in a match like this," said Westlake senior middle blocker Scott Kevorken.

"Both sides of the stands were just fueling energy onto the court. It was unbelievable."

Added Royal senior cocaptain and outside hitter Matt Janke: "It was a giant crowd, and that really helped everyone's energy and fired us up. . . . I hope they all got their money's worth."

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers HAMMER TIME—Warrior senior Jake Kneller, center, blasts a kill past Royal defenders Danny Preece, left, and Jerame Maas. In the final frenetic minutes, after seeing its two-games-to-none advantage slip away, Westlake was able to right the ship in Game 5 for a 25-17, 25-22, 13-25, 21-25, 15-12 victory that delivered the program's first boys' volleyball championship.

Warrior senior outside hitter Jake Kneller, who finished with 22 kills, 11 digs and five aces, and Kevorken, who posted 15 kills and four aces, were the team's go-to guys.

In Game 5, with the scored knotted at 9-9, Kneller had a kill and the 6-foot-9 Kevorken added a block to put Westlake up by two points.

Shortly thereafter, Kevorken logged another huge kill to stake the Warriors to a 13-11 advantage, one they would not relinquish.

Kneller credited sophomore setter Travis Magorien for getting the ball to the right people at the proper times, particularly late in the match. Magorien finished with 57 assists.

"It was extremely smart setting and great execution by (Magorien)," the Stanford-bound Kneller said.

Following a pair of hitting errors by Royal at the end of Game 5, the Warriors were mobbing each other in celebration of a hard-fought section crown.

"This puts you on such an amazing high," said Kevorken, who will attend UC Irvine. "We're up (in the rafters) forever now. It's a legacy. People will always remember this."

For Westlake head coach Doug Magorien, winner of four City Section titles while at Taft High, the victory was as special as any he could recount during his 26year coaching career, including eight seasons at WHS.

"This ranks right up there with what I did at Taft," the coach said. "It's so special."

Coach Magorien had lost his previous two trips to the finals while coaching at Westlake, once with the boys' squad and once with the girls' team.

With 17 digs and 15 kills, sophomore opposite Keats Stanley put together a big-time performance for the Warriors. Junior libero Nick Weaver also stepped up with 17 digs.

While Westlake celebrated, Royal's 10 seniors were stuck wondering what could have been.

Left for dead following Game 2—and the Warriors' winning point for that game was heavily criticized by Highlander head coach Dean Borth as being out of bounds, which drew a warning— Royal stormed back to take the third and fourth games.

Leading the Highlanders' comeback were seniors Tyler Peterson (17 kills), Trevor Jones (16 kills), Jerame Maas (43 assists, four blocks), Danny Preece (six kills, six blocks) and Janke (11 digs, eight kills, two blocks).

Junior libero Stacey Kelly also had a big night for Royal with 17 digs.

"We're a strong team," Peterson said. "When we lost the first two games, we knew we needed to come back and win the next two. We wanted that last game, but things just didn't go our way. Westlake is a good team. They deserve a lot of credit."

According to Janke, quitting was never an option for the Highlanders.

"It's a great group of guys that plays with tremendous heart and drive," Janke said. "We pushed through to get to the fifth game, but came up a little short. I know we all tried as hard as we could."

Borth, in his third year as head coach at Royal, said it was like watching a pair of heavyweight boxers slug it out in the ring.

"They played phenomenal and we played phenomenal," Borth said. "Someone had to lose.

"The thing about it is that no matter if we won or if they won, both teams were going to leave it all out on the floor—all the blood, all the sweat, all the tears. . . . I love being part of matches like that."

On Tuesday, Westlake (26-4-2) defeated Granada Hills in the first round of the Division I Southern California Regional Championships. The Warriors play La Costa Canyon tonight at 7 p.m. at Moorpark High.