MHS girls’ volleyball team looking to regain early-season form

PATRICK SHELBY/Acorn Newspapers OVER THE TOP—Moorpark middle blocker Kristine Priebe goes up high to spike the ball against the Westlake defense Tuesday night while setter Emma Stanley looks on. The Musketeers lost the match (24-26, 21-25, 22-25) and saw their season record slip to 13-7, including a 6-4 mark in Marmonte play. MHS was back on the court Thursday evening against the first-place Thousand Oaks Lancers, although the game score wasn’t available prior to press time. On Friday, MHS is at home in a rematch vs. Westlake. The contest begins at 6 p.m. September was a special month for the Moorpark girls’ volleyball team.

October hasn’t been as kind.

The Musketeers won 10 of

heir first 13 matches from Sept. 6 through Oct. 1.

Led by the senior leadership of outside hitter Danielle Hermansen and the youthful energy of freshman middle blocker/ outside hitter Rachael Kidder, MHS put forth quality showings n both the Ventura and Royal Tournaments, posting a 6-2 combined record.

Coincidently or not, both of the team’s tournament-ending defeats came at the hands of the Simi Valley Pioneers.

But when the calendar changed to the 10th month of the year, Moorpark’s good fortunes didn’t follow, as the squad has compiled just a 3-5 record since Oct. 2, including a 3-4 mark in Marmonte League play over the past month.

Moorpark saw its overall record fall to 13-7 following a road loss to Westlake Tuesday night.

The Musketeers stood in fourth place in the Marmonte standings with a 6-4 league record prior to Thursday night’s match against Thousand Oaks (results of the T.O. game were not available prior to press time).

Thousand Oaks (12-1, 10-0) currently tops the Marmonte, followed by Westlake (18-3, 10-1) and Simi Valley (12-5, 8-4).

Because Royal and Newbury Park are still a few victories behind Moorpark in the standings, it appears as if the Musketeers are in solid position to clinch the Marmonte’s fourth and final automatic postseason bid, MHS head coach Brendan Hanson said.

“Any team can upset another team in this league, so nothing’s for sure,” Hanson said. “I’m sure hoping we can lock up that fourth spot. It would be nice.”

Hanson, along with Hermansen and senior defensive specialist Kristin Lombardo, said Tuesday’s loss to Westlake was a byproduct of both the Warriors’ strong play, and their own inability to match Westlake’s intensity from one point to the next.

“Our play was kind of flat,” Lombardo said. “We didn’t really finish when we should have. They got us mostly on cross-court hitting, which we should have picked up on right away but didn’t. Basically we just played flat. We could have beat (Westlake), we had chances to.”

The good news for Moorpark is that they get an immediate shot at redemption tonight when the Warriors travel to MHS for a 6 p.m. showdown.

Hermansen, who leads the team with 277 kills, said she and her teammates shouldn’t have a difficult time getting pumped up for the rematch.

“We’ll have more intensity for sure,” Hermansen said. “I think if we fire it up after every play, after someone gets a kill we go in there and scream and yell and just have fun with it, then I think we can pull through it.”

Lombardo said having the home crowd behind them—remember folks, there’s no football on Friday night—should be a tremendous boost for the team’s spirits.

“We’ll be in our environment with our people cheering us on,” Lombardo said. “I think it’s an advantage to be at home.”

In addition to Hermansen, Kidder and Lombardo, junior opposite/ outside hitter Chelsea Daley, the team leader in kills (201) and aces (62), has been playing well this season, the coach said.

Junior setter Emma Stanly, the team leader with 416 assists, continues to impress too, Hanson said.

“We’ve got a lot of young players,” Hanson said. “A lot of it is just our intensity. We’ve got to find that drive to go out and just put the game away.”