Schultz Played Beyond Her Years

It was Harvard-Westlake’s season-opening match in early September, several weeks before league play and eons from the start of the girls’ volleyball playoffs.

It was a perfect time for Courtney Schultz to make a statement.

Against Royal, the defending Southern Section Division I-A champion, Schultz, a 6-foot middle blocker, shut down the Highlanders’ attack with six blocks.

Not coincidentally, Harvard-Westlake swept Royal, setting the tone for a season in which the Wolverines won the Mission League title, advanced to the Division III-AA final and, ultimately, advanced to the semifinals of the Southern Regional in the state Division III playoffs.

Schultz, who led the Wolverines in kills, aces and hitting percentage, is The Times’ region player of the year.

The scary part, at least for opponents: Schultz is only a sophomore.

It’s enough to make Harvard-Westlake Coach Jess Quiroz smile.

“The youth is still there, but the skill level is beyond her years,” said Quiroz, who earlier this season compared Schultz to former Harvard-Westlake middle blocker Amanda Selby, who played at UCLA and California.

” 1/8Schultz 3/8 is making moves right now that a lot of kids her age simply cannot do--her attack, her quickness, her move on the slide, her blocking, her attack in the back row. She shows great talent in all phases of the game right now.”

Quiroz was especially pleased with how Schultz played in a regular-season match against Torrance Bishop Montgomery, the eventual state Division III runner-up.

The Wolverines lost in five games, but Schultz held her own against USC-bound Katie Olsovsky, a 6-3 middle blocker.

Schultz finished with 17 kills despite getting only one in the first two games.

“I think we’ve seen a glimpse of the future,” Quiroz said.

Perhaps the only thing that stopped Schultz this season was a sprained ankle that forced her to miss four matches.

Schultz doesn’t want to rest on her laurels.

“I still have a lot ahead of me, so I definitely want to keep 1/8the accolades 3/8 out of my mind,” she said. “I think there’s a lot of room for improvement.”

Proving she’s serious, Schultz will play volleyball almost year-round.

She was a vital part of the Sports Shack club team that placed first out of 387 teams last summer in the 16-and-under division of the Volleyball Festival at UC Davis.

Schultz and outside hitter Karalyn Kuchenbecker, also a sophomore, are the main reasons why Harvard-Westlake is the favorite to win an eighth consecutive league title next season.

“I’m more than excited,” Quiroz said. “It’s an awesome solid core of kids that I’m going to have for another two years. That’s the fun part.”