Sylmar Beats Birmingham to Reach Volleyball Final

Michelle Solano believed that Sylmar High had something to prove in the Spartans’ 15-6, 15-13, 4-15, 17-15 victory over Birmingham in the City Section 3-A Division volleyball semifinals Wednesday night at Hamilton High.

Solano made her point in the decisive fourth game to guide Sylmar to the 3-A title game against Marshall on Saturday night at Cal State Dominguez Hills.

Marshall defeated Van Nuys, 15-13, 15-8, 15-7, in the earlier semifinal at Hamilton.

Solano, a 5-foot-6 middle blocker participating in her first year of volleyball, recorded 11 of her match-high 18 kills and two service aces as Sylmar held off a furious Birmingham rally.

Sylmar had defeated Birmingham, the 3-A runner-up last season, in five games early in the season to win the Valley Pac-8 Conference title. “The last time we played them, we were nervous,” said Solano, who also had 20 digs and four aces. “This time we felt we were equal. We definitely wanted to show them that we were for real.”

Griselda Vasquez had 16 kills and six blocks and setter Andrea Cervantes added 36 assists for Sylmar (15-1), which had only three players back from last year’s team that lost in the first round of the playoffs.

Seemingly beaten, Birmingham (13-3) rallied from a 13-5 deficit and three match points in the fourth game to take a 15-14 lead before falling.

Tina Larson paced Birmingham with 13 kills and seven blocks and Merideth Lewis had eight kills.

Leading, 6-4, in the third game, the Braves scored nine points in a row, winning on a Larson spike deep into the back row to force the fourth game.

Van Nuys (12-2) got the long and short end against Marshall (11-5) in the other semifinal.

Marshall’s Kathy Ham, a 5-foot-2 setter, and Cherri Halliburton, a 6-foot-1 middle blocker, stymied Van Nuys with 10 kills and nine blocks, respectively.

Van Nuys raced to a 5-0 advantage in the first game and extended its lead to 8-3 before Marshall rallied to go ahead, 11-10.

“The first game was the one that broke our backs,” Van Nuys Coach Dave Bessler said. “We would have to play our best and they would have to play their worst for us to win. They just didn’t make any mistakes.”

Joanne Harry and Thuy-Van Le led Van Nuys with 14 and 13 kills, respectively.