VALLEY / VENTURA COUNTY SPORTS : ROUNDUP : Harvard-Westlake Performance Middle of the Road

They started slow. They finished slow.

In between, members of the Harvard-Westlake High girls’ volleyball team played well, but that never amounts to much against Bishop Montgomery, a perennial pain in past Wolverines’ seasons.

The Knights defeated Harvard-Westlake, 15-8, 15-5, 9-15, 13-15, 15-11, in a nonleague match Tuesday night at Bishop Montgomery that could be a preview of the Southern Section Division III final.

If that’s the case, score round one in favor of Bishop Montgomery.

Katie Olsovsky, a 6-foot-3 middle blocker who is one of the top recruits in the nation, pounded a career-high 34 kills and added six blocks to help the Knights (7-2), ranked No. 1 in Division III, divert a comeback by second-ranked Harvard-Westlake (3-3).

The Wolverines endured a horrendous beginning, in which they committed almost as many hitting errors, 14, as kills, 15, while losing the first two games.

But sophomores Karalyn Kuchenbecker and Courtney Schultz rallied the Wolverines, who kept flip-flopping setters Ashley Julian and Leslie Meller in and out of the lineup.

Kuchenbecker finished with 18 kills and Schultz had 17 despite having only one kill in the first two games.

The Wolverines were actually on the brink of winning the match, holding a 10-6 lead in the fifth game before they reverted to their ineffective form of the first two games.

Bishop Montgomery, which won state Division III titles in 1996 and 1998, scored nine of the last 10 points.

“At least they came back and played the way they’re capable of playing,” Coach Jess Quiroz of Harvard-Westlake said of his team. “It’s too bad they gave away two games like that.”

The teams have met in the playoffs three of the past four seasons. Another meeting seems inevitable.

Said Olsovsky: “I think we’ll see them again.”