Agoura Rebuffs Thousand Oaks in Volleyball

The last thing the Agoura High girls’ volleyball team wanted Tuesday night at Thousand Oaks was to allow the Lancers to force a fifth game.

So the Chargers made sure they finished off Thousand Oaks in four, scoring a 15-9, 15-10, 9-15, 15-12 Marmonte League victory.

Agoura had dropped five-game matches to Nordhoff and Westlake in the past two weeks, and it looked as if this match was headed in that direction when Thousand Oaks (5-4, 2-1) took a 10-3 lead in the fourth game.

But, sparked by the serving of Tammy Barrus, the Chargers (3-2, 2-1 in league play) ran off 10 consecutive points to take the lead and moments later the match. Barrus, a junior setter who lost 15 pounds earlier this season because of bronchitis, was perhaps the least likely player to turn a match around from the service line.

“I’ve had problems serving all year,” Barrus said. “I just wanted to keep the ball in. I didn’t expect to go that far with it.”

Barrus started her run with a cross-court ace and added two aces during the surge. Two Jenny Pavley kills and five Lancer errors completed the run and put the Chargers ahead, 13-10, before Barrus finally served into the net.

A kill by Jenny Hagen of Thousand Oaks and an Agoura hitting error made it 13-12 before Tracy Heflin earned a sideout with a hard spike and the Lancers self-destructed with back-to-back net violations.

Pavley, a junior outside hitter who led the Chargers with 20 kills, said Agoura was determined to win as quickly as possible. “We wanted to win fast and get out of here.”

Pavley said the Chargers were angered by the loss last week to Westlake. “We just got mad and wanted to prove we were better than (the Lancers) were.”

Led by the hitting of Pavley and tough serving, Agoura came out aggressively in the first two games while Thousand Oaks started sluggishly.

“We took until the third game to play our type of game,” Thousand Oaks Coach Ron Beick said. “When you get to (the playoffs), you can’t get down like that.”