Palisades Guns for City Title : Volleyball: The second-seeded Dolphins play fourth-seeded Roosevelt on Friday at Pepperdine.

Second-seeded Palisades High will try to win its ninth City Section volleyball title when the Dolphins meet Roosevelt in the 4-A Division championship at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Pepperdine.

“I’ve seen Roosevelt play once,” Palisades Coach Howard Enstedt said. “They have a real scrappy program that’s getting better and better.”

The fourth-seeded Roughriders swept Granada Hills, 15-8, 15-5, 15-10, Tuesday. The Riders (14-2) are led by setter Oscar Oyama and outside hitters in Mike Moran, Richard Castellano and Geovanni Barrajas.

“Odds are we’re both even,” Enstedt said. “But we have more experience with knock-down, drag-out matches.”

The Dolphins (12-5) edged Venice, 15-12, 10-15, 12-15, 15-9, 15-11 in a semifinal on Tuesday.

Enstedt said the match was “the most exasperating I’ve ever been associated with.”

The Dolphins have one of the tallest lineups in the City with three players 6-foot-5 or taller. They have discovered that it takes more than brute strength to win.

“We have big kids who can hit at a high point of their jump,” Enstedt said. “We think we can get by with that. But we need to do more than just hit the crap out of the ball.”

Early in the match against Venice, Palisades’ senior Jonas De Krassel had trouble setting.

“Some sets were flying too high, some were real inside, others were unhittable,” said 6-5 outside hitter Colin Wellman, who will play for Pepperdine next season. “We also broke down in the middle, but Jonas made some adjustments.”

Venice (13-6) took command in the second game by winning six of the last seven points. In that game, Brian Rivera had nine kills and Colin Fawcett had seven. Fawcett also blocked Gaby Amar’s spike attempt for the final point.

With the score tied, 9-9, in the third game, De Krassel turned his right ankle and the Dolphins faced the prospect of playing with a reserve setter. The Gondoliers won six of the next nine points as De Krassel limped around the court.

The Dolphins switched their rotation in the fourth game, matching Wellman against Rivera. De Krassel also began setting more to the outside where the Dolphins faced no more than one blocker.

Wellman had 12 of his game-high 31 kills in the last two games.