El Camino Real Rallies to Beat Chatsworth

El Camino Real High girls’ volleyball Coach Lori Chandler likens senior Jennifer Dinaberg to a “quiet tidal wave waiting to happen.”

“She always seems to explode at the right moment,” Chandler says.

Dinaberg picked the right moment to go off Wednesday night as El Camino Real came from behind to beat Chatsworth, 15-4, 11-15, 10-15, 15-13, 15-5, in a Northwest Valley Conference match between previously unbeaten teams.

Dinaberg, who had a match-high 18 kills, responded with seven kills in the pivotal fourth game to help the Conquistadores rally from a 13-10 deficit and force a fifth game.

El Camino Real improved to 8-0 overall and 5-0 in conference play while Chatsworth, which had defeated the Conquistadores in the 1989 City Section 4-A Division semifinals, slipped to 8-1 and 4-1.

The teams resume their rivalry Tuesday at El Camino Real.

“Every year, Chatsworth is always the biggest competition,” said Dinaberg, a first-team All-City selection as a junior and a second-team choice as a sophomore.

“We’ve been playing so long together that we knew we could come back. We’ve been down before and we knew we had enough.”

Chatsworth’s Jody Paperno, who had seven kills in the match, suffered what may be a fractured ankle in the fourth game with her team leading, 4-1. That proved to be a turning point.

“When Jody went down that really hurt us,” Chatsworth Coach Steve Berk said. “We lost all our momentum.

“We’re just going to have to regroup and come back Tuesday. It’s going to be hard because there is no way she is going to be back by then.”

Heather Gorman led Chatsworth with 11 kills.

El Camino Real had not lost a game this season, winning 21 in a row, and Chatsworth had lost only three heading into the match.

The Conquistadores broke a 4-4 tie and reeled off 11 unanswered points in the first game to extend their streak.

“It was the best game we’ve played all year and I thought we were going to roll along,” Chandler said. “We stopped executing and started to make mistakes.”

El Camino Real jumped to a 7-0 lead in the second game, but Chatsworth rallied to tie the score, 11-11, and went on to win on Marsha Gekhtman’s block.

In the third game, Chatsworth broke a 4-4 deadlock to take an 11-4 advantage. El Camino Real closed to 13-10, but the comeback fell short when Hellen Hong’s shot went wide on game point.

The match originally was scheduled for Oct. 4, but was postponed by El Camino Real after the match was moved to the Chatsworth girls’ gym because the main gym floor was being resurfaced.