CITY SECTION VOLLEYBALL PLAYOFFS : University Sweeps Past Kennedy : Volleyball: Undersized Golden Cougars are no match for defending City Section 4-A champions.

Five minutes before the match, Mike Whitmore slurped from a large water bottle and listened as an awe-struck bystander remarked how tall the opposing University High boys’ volleyball players were.

“Yeah,” laughed the 6-foot-5 Whitmore, the only sizable player on the Kennedy roster. “But we’re craftier.”

Kennedy may have been trickier, but on Tuesday night it was more apropos to be powerful, a role University assumed in a 15-10, 15-4, 15-8 victory in a City Section 4-A Division semifinal match.

Defending 4-A champions, the Warriors occasionally fell for Kennedy’s off-speed dinks and kills, but more often than not, University (14-1) answered with a blast from one of its many capable hitters.

“There were some points in the game where they destroyed the ball,” said Whitmore, who had four kills for Kennedy (14-2). “It seems like I was the only one blocking.”

Goliath won this one, but David’s slingshots were used more than once.

The fourth-seeded Golden Cougars found themselves within a couple points of top-seeded University late in Games 1 and 3.

In the first game, Kennedy battled jitters and a 6-0 deficit to pull to within 11-10.

The Warriors, who averaged a colossal 6-foot-4 to Kennedy’s 5-11, couldn’t attack Kennedy’s middle, patrolled by Whitmore and 6-foot Brian Atkison. The duo combined for four blocks in the first game and left the Warriors briefly backpedaling.

But like all championship teams, the Warriors made an adjustment.

They found the outside.

Outside hitter Mike Rupp knocked down three of his 18 kills in the final frames of Game 1 to give University more than just a first-game victory.

“The whole match was the first game,” said Kennedy Coach Mike Stanton, whose team barely made an appearance in the second game. “If we had won the first game, we had them intimidated.”

Again it was Rupp with three kills in the late stages of Game 2 to put it away.

Different game, same result.

“I just think we had too much firepower,” said University Coach Neal Newman, whose team will face Bell in the final on Friday.

But the Golden Cougars fired back in the third game, feasting on numerous attack errors by University and throwing in some of their own trademark off-speed, perfectly-placed kills.

Soon it was 7-1, Kennedy.

“We weren’t quite ready for some of those taps,” said Rupp, whose teammates were still adjusting to the loss of all-everything setter Raoul Williams two weeks ago to academic ineligibility. “They were a pretty good team.”

The Warriors were better.

Trailing, 8-3, they scored 12 consecutive points, four of them on kills by Rupp.

Whitmore, the voice of the Golden Cougars, said it like it was.

“Easy way to explain it? We choked,” he said of the final-game setback. “We got overconfident.”

Winners of four City titles since 1985, University seems to have the perfect blend of confidence and ability.

“They feel they can win the City (title),” Newman said of his players. “I think we have the mental toughness and the physical ability to do it.”

The Warriors wrote the final chapter in a storybook season for Kennedy.

The Golden Cougars were co-champions of the Northwest Valley Conference and reached the 4-A semifinals for the first time.

“I’m happy with our season,” said Stanton. “I think it brought our program to a new height.

Fairfax d. Van Nuys, 9-15, 15-12, 15-12, 4-15, 15-8--The third-seeded Lions (12-4) jumped out to an 8-0 lead in the final game of the 3-A semifinal at Van Nuys, ending hopes of a perfect season for the Wolves (15-1).

Marshall d. Sylmar, 15-7, 15-11, 15-2--The Spartans (13-3) fell in a 3-A semifinal at Marshall.