Thousand Oaks Pulls an Ace in Wild-Card Win

For most of the season, the girls’ volleyball team at Thousand Oaks High has ranked among the state’s best. But when the Lancers fell to second in the tough Marmonte League, they suddenly found themselves forced to play a wild-card match for the right to advance to the Southern Section 5-A Division playoffs.

On Tuesday, Thousand Oaks definitely proved it belongs in the postseason tournament, putting together one of its sharpest performances of the season to blow out visiting Beverly Hills 15-5, 15-4, 15-0 in just 50 minutes.

“We were disappointed when we found out we had to play a wild card,” said Lancer outside hitter Kaili Kimura, who led the Lancers with nine kills. “But we just decided to go out and play aggressive.”

Playing aggressively meant scorching the Beverly Hills defense for 12 aces--four by Megan Lange and three by Kimura.

“When we started the match, we noticed (their) weaknesses in serving and passing,” Kimura said. “We just hammered away and it worked.”

There were no turning points in this match, only spots where Thousand Oaks’ brilliance showed through. With the score tied, 2-2, in the first game, for example, the serving of Karly Cleary and Lange, along with Kimura’s spiking, quickly exploited weaknesses in the Beverly Hills’ defense.

Cleary and Lange each rifled aces and Kimura smashed down four kills as Thousand Oaks spurted ahead, 7-2. Beverly Hills closed to 7-4, but then Kimura drilled consecutive aces and Cleary added a big kill to send the Lancers (12-5) on their way to victory.

Several times this season Thousand Oaks has had to struggle to maintain its intensity after taking an early lead. But the Lancers were consistent Tuesday, romping to a 9-0 lead in Game 2. Two aces by Beverly Hills’ Maria Michelli keyed a brief recovery as the Normans pulled to within 9-4, but twin aces from Lisa Gillette and an overset stuff from Gretchen Gulbranson finished off the win.

Thousand Oaks Coach John Bjerke started going to his bench midway through the third game, but even that didn’t slow the Lancers: Thousand Oaks rattled off 15 points, with only seven sideouts in between, to eliminate Beverly Hills (7-8).

“We’ve seemed to peak and let up and peak and let up all year,” Cleary said. “We’ve been trying to play with more consistency and this is pretty much the first time we’ve achieved it.”

Beverly Hills Coach Marla Weiss was disappointed that her team didn’t give a better accounting of itself.

“We did not play well at all,” Weiss said. “Our serving and our serve-receive both broke down tonight. When we’ve done both of those skills poorly, we’ve had problems.”

Now Thousand Oaks can turn its attention to a first-round playoff match at Corona del Mar on Thursday.