Harvard-Westlake Presents Obstacles Too Big for Louisville

The game plan for Louisville High in its girls’ volleyball match against Harvard-Westlake on Tuesday night was simple.

Keep the ball away from Amanda Selby.

But Selby, the Wolverines’ 6-foot-2 middle blocker, was too imposing an obstacle along the front line, and although the Royals forced Westlake to make difficult passes to Selby, her 19 kills and five blocks led the host Wolverines to a 15-0, 18-16, 15-11 victory in a Mission League match.

Only three of Selby’s kills came in the lopsided first game, but she had help from outside hitters Carolyn Miller (four kills) and Lesley Coben (two kills).

How bad was the first game for Louisville? The Royals could accomplish only two sideouts and finished with one kill and one block, both by outside hitter Lauren Brownson.

“I think we were probably a little over-excited,” Brownson said. “Most of us have been playing them for three years and we were hoping this would be the time we could finally beat them.”

Westlake (4-3, 3-0 in league play) wanted to show that last Friday’s loss to Delphic League powerhouse Brentwood was a fluke. The Wolverines played well at the beginning of that match, but faltered and lost in four games.

The same scenario began to develop in the second game when Louisville (4-4, 2-1) jumped out to a 4-0 lead. Westlake rallied behind Selby and setter Jenny Kriste to tie the score, 6-6. The teams traded the lead until three Selby kills erased a 16-15 deficit.

“We let up last week and we let up a little bit tonight too,” Selby said. “We had to play well at get it back. We didn’t against Brentwood but we did now.”

Kriste, normally the starting setter, didn’t play in Westlake’s previous three matches after spraining both wrists in a match against Fountain Valley.

Tuesday, she came in for replacement Mandy Kaplan in the second game and again halfway through the third game, finishing with six blocks and 26 assists. Brownson and outside hitter Audra Duda had five kills each in the second game to keep Louisville close.