Marshall Gives Sylmar Painful History Lesson

The Sylmar High boys’ volleyball team had already made school history by getting this far.

Now, the Spartans had to conquer Marshall, a team full of history.

Consider the New World still unexplored.

Marshall defeated Sylmar, 15-11, 13-15, 1-15, 15-7, 17-15 and captured its third City Section 3-A title Friday at Occidental College.

The third-seeded Spartans (16-2) failed to win their first 3-A title, while fifth-seeded Marshall (13-4) added to its other 3-A titles from 1993 and 1994.

No chance for revenge, either: Sylmar could not dump the team that eliminated it from last season’s playoffs.

A turnaround seemed possible in Game 3, when Sylmar ran out to a 12-0 lead courtesy of its defense at the net. The game could have been quicker, but the Spartans had five service errors.

Sylmar corrected its serving in the fourth game, but ran into a different problem; hitting.

The Spartans had seven errors on the attack and found themselves trailing, 8-2. A fifth game was inevitable.

That’s when Giovanni Manahan and Kevin Holle stepped up.

The duo combined for 16 kills in a thrilling third game in which each team fought off two match points. Manahan finished with 24 kills, Holle with 22.

It was a rough ending for the Spartans, who captured a share of the Valley Pac-8 Conference for the first time ever.

Kevin Dawes had 31 kills and 10 blocks for Sylmar. Toni Linares added 16 kills and five blocks.