Thousand Oaks Sweeps Royal in Girls’ Volleyball

Thousand Oaks High dug a hole Tuesday night and buried Royal in it, 15-9, 15-13, 15-9, in a Marmonte League girls’ volleyball match at Royal.

Put the emphasis on dig, because the Lancers racked up 89 digs and neutralized Royal’s vaunted offense to forge a first-place tie with the Highlanders.

“We played out of our minds on defense,” said Thousand Oaks captain and outside hitter Kaili Kimura, who led the Lancers with 19 digs. Karly Cleary matched Kimura with 19 digs, and Jenny Sugino added 17.

Thousand Oaks (5-5, 4-1 in league play) was coming off a disappointing five-game loss to Westlake last week, while Royal (6-1, 4-1) was riding high after winning its own tournament Saturday.

Thousand Oaks shut down 6-foot middle blocker Jennifer Hamilton, holding the Highlander ace to 12 kills and seven blocks. Hamilton came into the match averaging 22 kills a match.

“It’s hard to run a quick attack when your passes only get to the 10-foot line,” Royal Coach Bob Ferguson said. “If you’re not passing the ball, you can’t make many adjustments.”

Thousand Oaks raced to a 6-1 lead in the first game behind sharp defense. Royal got as close as 7-6, but a long spike from the Highlanders’ Kristen Fick, a service ace by Sugino and a kill by Jenny Mengels on a bad Royal pass gave the Lancers a 10-6 lead. Thousand Oaks, which survived eight service errors in the game, finally won when Jenny Hagen scored a winner on a difficult dig.

Royal looked like it might even the match when it took a 7-1 advantage in the second game behind the play in the middle of Hamilton and tough serving from Tracey Tahy and Jill Enright. But Thousand Oaks stormed back to tie, 13-13, and eventually win behind a seven-point service run from Sugino.

The third game was almost a carbon copy of the first game as the Lancers sprinted out to a 6-1 lead and held off the Highlanders. Royal didn’t help its comeback bid by making five service errors.

Offensively, Thousand Oaks hurt Royal with dinks more than with spikes. Cleary led the attack with 13 kills and Kimura added eight.