HIGH SCHOOL VOLLEYBALL ROUNDUP : Granada Hills Powers Past Palisades

They dropped a crucial late-season match and then lost an important coin flip.

Thanks to both of the above, the Granada Hills Highlanders--runners-up in last season’s City Section 4-A championship--were seeded a relatively low sixth in the 16-team playoffs.

On Tuesday, the Highlanders filed a protest of sorts: A 15-8, 15-10, 15-12 victory over Palisades in the first-round of the 4-A playoffs.

“We know we’re better than the sixth seed,” said outside hitter Ryan Kamins, who paced the Highlanders (12-2) with 13 kills. “We have something to prove and we came out intense.”

Now they’ll have to prove it to third-seeded Bell in a quarterfinal match Thursday.

“We have to play well from here on out,” Granada Hills Coach Tom Harp said. “Or else we’re out quick.”

Granada Hills rapidly disposed of Palisades (6-8) as the Highlanders’ three standout players took turns dominating.

In the first game, Chad Hess notched five of his nine kills and Granada Hills charged to an 8-0 lead.

In the second game, Kamins, who signed a letter of intent with UC Santa Barbara last month, registered four of his nine kills and lifted the Highlanders after they found themselves trailing, 4-0.

The third game was saved by Earnest Yun, who threw down six of his nine kills to help complete the sweep.

A few mental mistakes by the Highlanders--the ball was twice set to a nonexistent outside hitter--and spotty passing off serves kept the scores closer than they could have been.

“If they work on their consistency a bit, they could do well,” said Palisades Coach Dave Suarez, whose team was inconsistent because of injuries and academic ineligibility. “When they are steady, they’re a good team.”

The Highlanders weren’t so smooth in a loss to Kennedy during the second half of the Northwest Valley Conference schedule. The two teams ended up tying for the conference championship.

Granada Hills also failed to catch a break when No. 4-seeded Kennedy won last week’s coin toss that determined which of the conference co-champions would be seeded higher.

The good news from the seedings: The Highlanders wouldn’t face top-seeded University--the team that defeated them in the finals last year--until the championship match, which would set up an intriguing rematch.

But for now, they play at Bell, a team they faced in a preseason scrimmage.

“It was pretty even,” said Harp. “It should be a pretty good match Thursday.”

Just the same, a final memo from Kamins to whomever it may concern: “They probably wrote us off . . . saying it’s not the same team as last year. I think we’re better this year.”