Thousand Oaks Trips Volleyball Rival Royal

Rankings carried little meaning when undefeated Marmonte League volleyball rivals Thousand Oaks and Royal highs squared off Thursday at Thousand Oaks.

Thousand Oaks, the top-ranked Southern Section 4-A Division team, and unranked Royal appeared to be of nearly equal ability. Early in the match, in fact, Royal was the dominant team.

But Thousand Oaks recovered to win, 2-15, 15-13, 15-8, 15-3, and came away with nothing but praise for the Highlanders.

“They should definitely be ranked,” said Thousand Oaks captain Amy Chellevold, who had a team-high 15 kills. “They are at least a top-five 4-A team.”

Not many who saw the match would disagree. After easily winning the first game, the Highlanders led the second, 13-11, but couldn’t put it away. The Lancers fought back with four consecutive points to win the game and they maintained control thereafter.

“The second game was the difference,” Lancer Betsy Moore said. “If they thought they could have won, they probably would have.”

But after Shauna Campbell spiked the game point, Thousand Oaks (7-0, 3-0) proceeded to put the Highlanders (4-1, 3-1) in their proper place and sent them to their sixth consecutive loss in head-to-head competition.

The third game was also close. Thousand Oaks led only 9-6 before scoring five consecutive points. In the fourth game, the Lancers scored nine points in a row to turn a 2-2 tie into a rout.

The poor early start, Chellevold said, was Thousand Oaks’ own doing. “Everybody was saying we are ready before the game, but our focus really wasn’t there until the second game,” she said.

Campbell had a team-high 26 assists and outside hitter Erikka Gulbranson had nine kills for Thousand Oaks. Outside hitter Alison Bantel had 13 kills and Michelle Pagen added 34 assists for Royal.