El Camino Real Upsets Chatsworth in Volleyball

A coach normally doesn’t tell jokes during a timeout huddle in the fifth game of a volleyball match, especially when her team is about to pull off an upset.

Believing humor might relax her team, however, El Camino Real High girls’ volleyball Coach Lori Chandler turned comedian with her team ahead, 8-1, against Chatsworth on Wednesday. She even pulled money out of her pocket and offered the team pizzas if it won.

After a few laughs, Chandler’s strategy proved successful as the calm Conquistadores handed the Chancellors their first Northwest Valley Conference loss, an 11-15, 5-15, 16-14, 15-3, 15-10 setback at Chatsworth.

The lighthearted approach enabled El Camino Real (9-2 overall, 6-2 in conference play) to snap Chatsworth’s eight-match winning streak and hand the Chancellors (10-2, 7-1) their first conference loss in two years. Each team has two conference matches remaining.

“I’m usually a screaming maniac and yell too much at the team,” Chandler said. “But that put too much pressure on them and I told them to just have fun today.”

The jocular side of Chandler was met with approval from captain Jennifer Dinaberg, who had a team-high 13 kills. “When she’s not constantly yelling and screaming at us, the team is not afraid to make mistakes and plays with more confidence,” Dinaberg said.

Will the Conquistadores really get pizza? “Yes,” Chandler said. “Pepperoni.”

The Conquistadores weren’t laughing after dropping the first two games and finding themselves trailing, 14-10, in the third game.

After Chatsworth failed to serve the ball over the net on match point, El Camino Real scored the last six points of the third game, two on Dinaberg kills, and continued its surge in the fourth and fifth games.

At one point in the fourth game until an 8-1 lead in the fifth game, the Conquistadores scored 18 of 20 points.