Westlake Makes Own Statement

Don’t make this team mad.

Angered by an opposing coach’s comments after its last playoff victory, Westlake High trounced Bakersfield Stockdale, 15-5, 15-4, 15-8, Saturday night and advanced to the semifinals of the state Division II girls’ volleyball tournament for the second consecutive season.

The Warriors, who have swept all six of their playoff matches, took only 61 minutes to eliminate Stockdale.

In their first-round victory Tuesday night against Sanger, they needed 54 minutes.

“This kind of volleyball has never been played at Westlake or in the Conejo Valley,” Westlake Coach Chris Rundle said.

The Warriors had something to prove against Stockdale.

After being swept by Westlake, Sanger Coach Lynette Wilke-Lopez compared Westlake (35-3) unfavorably to Stockdale (23-11), saying the Warriors were weaker than Stockdale on defense and in the middle.

Sanger was swept by Stockdale in last week’s Central Section Division II title match.

“It made me focus a little more and try to prove myself,” said Westlake middle blocker Erika Denison, who had eight kills.

Denison and the Warriors bottled up Stockdale middle blocker Kelly Hierlmeier, who finished with six kills and six hitting errors.

“We worked on it all week, focusing on shutting down the middle,” Denison said.

The Warriors put up a block on just about every slide play by Hierlmeier and middle blocker Kristen Hurst.

Westlake finished with 11 blocks, Stockdale with four. Six players registered blocks for the Warriors, who forced Stockdale into more hitting errors than kills in every game.

Even Brooke Rundle, the Warriors’ 5-foot-7 setter who has committed to UC Santa Barbara, got into the mix with a career-best three blocks.

“There’s not a whole lot of weaknesses over there,” Stockdale Coach Maria Collatz said.

“We’d take care of one thing and they’d come back with something else.”

The Warriors built leads of 8-0 in each of the first two games and took an 8-2 lead in the third, ever giving Stockdale much of a chance to mount a rally.

Next up for Westlake is a home date on Tuesday with a very familiar foe--Santa Margarita.

The Warriors lost to the Eagles in last year’s Southern Section Division II-A final, blowing a 2-0 lead in games.

“That was the worst day of my life,” Rundle said.

The Warriors enacted a measure of revenge at last month’s Santa Barbara tournament, coming back from an 2-0 deficit to beat the Eagles in five games in the tournament playoffs.

Still, the Warriors are waiting.

“I don’t care that we already beat them,” said Rundle, who had 34 assists against Stockdale.

“I want to beat them so badly.”

If Westlake does, Rundle said, “I think we can go all the way this year.”