Thousand Oaks Falls to Gahr in Volleyball Final

Maybe the Gahr High girls’ volleyball team is the one that should be kicked upstairs to a new division.

A few days after looking indestructible in a 3-game sweep over San Gabriel, the defending state Division II champion, Thousand Oaks was destroyed by undefeated Gahr, 15-11, 15-8, 15-2, in the Southern Section 4-A Division championship Saturday night at Marina High.

“Gahr is excellently coached and very well-disciplined,” said Thousand Oaks Coach Ron Beick, whose team won 2 consecutive 2-A championships before moving up to the 4-A this season. “Even when we had the momentum, they made the critical plays that turned it around.”

Of course, when a team loses in straight games, there aren’t too many opportunities for momentum. The Lancers (19-2) managed to score 2 or more consecutive points only 4 times in the match.

“Our passing wasn’t there so our middle attack--our strength--wasn’t there,” setter Shauna Campbell said.

The Gladiators (19-0), playing in their fourth final in 6 years, disrupted Thousand Oaks’ defense with aggressive serving and hitting.

The teams battled to a tie in the first game before Gahr scored 4 points to take a 9-5 lead. Thousand Oaks, in its only sustained streak, scored 5 points to take a 10-9 lead.

The Lancers’ last 3 points of the spurt came on stuffs--3 of only 4 scoring blocks they had in the match. With the front line unable to stop the Gladiators, the back-row players were left to fend for themselves as Gahr closed out the game with a 6-1 run.

“Defense is what we’ve relied on all season long and we played defense poorly tonight,” Beick said.

Thousand Oaks’ problem was amplified by Gahr outside hitter Alicia Burns, who finished with a team-high 20 kills and seemed to put away every significant point Gahr needed.

“She was a smart hitter,” Campbell said. “She knew where to hit it.”

Thousand Oaks got as close as 11-6 in the second game and 1-1 in the third, but each time the Lancers looked like they would put together a string of points, Burns nailed a spike or the Lancers shanked a pass.

To the Lancers’ credit, despite being down 2 games to none and trailing, 8-1, in the third, they stymied Gahr during a long stretch of the last game, forcing 8 sideouts.