Granada Hills Takes the High Road

Taft High’s takeover attempt in the Northwest Valley Conference boys’ volleyball race failed Friday, but not without an emotional fight on both sides of the net.

In the end, Granada Hills remained alone in first place with a 15-12, 15-5, 15-9 victory at Taft.

After the first round of conference play, the Highlanders (8-0, 5-0 in the Northwest Valley) have not lost a game, including sweeps over rivals Chatsworth and Taft. Not bad for a team expected to be a challenger, not a leader.

But now they’re commanding respect.

“The papers never really put us high up there [in preseason articles],” said Granada Hills middle blocker Paul DiSimone. “I don’t know if they wanted to see us first or if they just don’t like us.”

There was no love lost on the court between the Highlanders and Taft (6-2, 3-2), which would have been in a three-way tie for first with Chatsworth had it won. Tempers and trash-talking were commonplace.

Three yellow-card warnings were issued in the second game. They followed a tense situation in the first game, when one of the line judges, a Taft junior varsity player, was removed by Toreador Coach Doug Magorien after making two questionable calls against Granada Hills.

With the first game tied, 7-7, the Highlanders were further angered when they were shorted a point by the scorekeeper. They recovered and won.

“I never thought there was bad blood,” Granada Hills Coach Tom Harp said. “If there were any more bad line calls, there might have been.”

In the second game, Taft was hit with two yellow cards, Granada Hills with one.

“This was for first,” Magorien said. “There was a lot at stake.”

Taft’s Joe Nargi attacked from nearly every spot on the court--right side, back row, middle--but was ineffective until the third game. The 6-foot-5 junior finished with 18 kills, 12 errors and a .158 hitting percentage.

Nargi had five kills and six errors in the second game, when Granada Hills took 5-0 and 10-2 leads.

Taft middle blocker Eric Bowen picked up some of the slack. A vocal player, Bowen had 10 kills.

“It was like, ‘Come on guys, wake up,’ ” Bowen said. “It didn’t seem like we wanted to play.”

Granada Hills did. Good passing, a digging defense and a strong offense from the outside have become staples for a team that was not expected to do as well as last year, when the Highlanders advanced to the City Section 4-A Division final with Donald Puathasnanon, who is now at UCLA.

“Everybody does their job,” Harp said. “It’s not like we’ve got one guy that’s dominating.”

Granada Hills outside hitter Chris Tran, who had 15 kills, says the Highlanders are capable of improving on last year’s finish.

“If we keep on playing the way we have been, we could go undefeated and go all the way,” Tran said. “We’re not just saying words, we’ve been backing them up.”

Shawn Litchfield added 12 kills for Granada Hills.

Taft played without starting outside hitter Mike Fox, who was put on probation by Magorien for missing a match and may not return to the team.