Harvard-Westlake Takes It to Bishop Montgomery

The rivalry, as intense and involved as any in girls’ volleyball, was anything but its usual self on Wednesday, almost as if it had caught a cold or slept poorly the night before.

Harvard-Westlake and Bishop Montgomery highs have seen plenty of each other in recent seasons, having played competitive and contentious matches in the playoffs four of the last five years.

But Harvard-Westlake held the clear-cut advantage in a nonleague match, downing Bishop Montgomery, 15-5, 15-4, 15-2, at Harvard-Westlake.

Courtney Schultz had 14 kills and Karalyn Kuchenbecker added eight for the Wolverines, who never trailed and took 8-0 leads in the second and third games.

Schultz, Kuchenbecker and Anna Nesser, entering their third year on the varsity, had not beaten Bishop Montgomery in four tries.

“We’ve been waiting for this for, I guess, three years now,” Schultz said. “There was a lot of grudge coming into it.”

And a lot of work going into the victory.

The Wolverines were originally supposed to play Bishop Montgomery last Tuesday, but a scheduling mix-up led to the postponing of the match until this week.

The rescheduling also left Harvard-Westlake (4-0) without a match for more than a week.

The Wolverines, however, beat up on each other during practice, putting a little more oomph than usual into their drills and intrasquad scrimmages.

“Even though we had a week off, it was a brutal week of practice,” said Coach Jess Quiroz of Harvard-Westlake. “It was rough. We really pushed each other out there.”

It showed.

The Wolverines were better than the Knights in serving and passing. And Annie Hoeksma did a good job of consistently setting Schultz, as per her coach’s request.

“I told her to get the ball to Courtney and she did,” Quiroz said. “I’m real pleased.”

Bishop Montgomery has undergone a face-lift since defeating Harvard-Westlake last year in the regular season and the Southern Section Division III-AA championship.

Katie Olsovsky, a 6-foot-3 middle blocker, plays for USC, and 6-3 sophomore Lauren Ervin transferred to Artesia. She is not eligible this year.

Bishop Montgomery started four sophomores, a junior and a senior against Harvard-Westlake.

The one senior happened to be Chrissy Zartman, a 5-5 outside hitter who has committed to UCLA and had 12 kills.

But the Knights (6-7) flat-lined on the experience meter in virtually every other spot.

“I would call it growing pains,” said Coach Kim Willeman, whose sister, Nina Matthies, coaches the Pepperdine women’s volleyball team.

“We’re going to have to take our lumps and we’re going to have to learn from it.”