Boys' volleyball: Dolphins have a chance to sweep section titles

The closer Palisades got to victory Tuesday night, the louder its gym got.

Much of the noise was generated by a small but boisterous cheering section off to one side of the court. That clique consisted of players from Palisades' girls' volleyball team, which won the City title in November. Now the boys want to hang their own banner on the wall.

"Our fans were great -- we could definitely hear them and it fired us up," hitter Adam Cristiano said after the Dolphins' four-game victory over defending champion Granada Hills in the semifinals of the City Section's Championship Division. "It would be great to win it the same year as the girls. That's what we're going for... a Pali sweep, baby."

The last time Palisades won girls' and boys' volleyball titles in the same year was 1998. The boys have not won it since, while the girls went on to win the title again the following year and added titles in 2003 and 2007.

"Yeah, there's maybe some extra pressure, but we're cool with that," team member Matt Hanley added after hugs from the girls. "El Camino Real is good and I'm sure they'll give us a run for our money, but we've beaten teams that have crushed them, so we'll see what happens."

Palisades came out flat in the first game Tuesday night and the Highlanders took advantage. In the huddle before the second game, however, the Dolphins changed their blocking schemes and from that point on they controlled the match.

"Their middles killed us that first game," senior middle blocker Ross Lipschultz said. "But one of our coaches noticed that one of them always hit crosscourt and the other guy always hit down the center so he told us to switch around our double-teams depending on who was hitting."

Palisades' only losses this season came in tournaments, but one of them was a 26-24 defeat to Sylmar at the Venice tournament, so the Dolphins were excited to find out that they won't be facing Sylmar in Saturday's  final.

"Granada Hills is definitely one of the best teams we've played all season," Lipschultz conceded. "But this was also one of our best team efforts."

-- Steve Galluzzo