Girls Volleyball: El Camino Real avoids upset with nice comeback

It was a good news, bad news situation for the El Camino Real of Woodland Hills girls volleyball team after its first round Div. I City Section playoff match against Kennedy of Granada Hills.

First, the good news.

The Conquistadores outlasted the Golden Cougars in five sets, 25-20, 23-25, 21-25, 25-20, 15-11, to advance to Thursdays second round.

The bad news?

El Camino Real (6-12-1) has to face top-ranked West Valley League rival Granada Hills.

However, El Camino Real has two days to revel in its victory and prepare for the Hanna Levanen, Amber Hawthorne and Highlanders.

It seemd like it would be a relatively quick night for El Camino Real as it won the first set and was leading 9-2 in set two before falling apart.

Kennedy seized the opportunity, coming all the way back from the eight point deficit and then won set three to take a 2-1 set lead.

"We always do that," El Camino Real middle blocker Jackie Silver said. "We get too excited and just lose our heads and focus. We start playing too fast but we always come back and pick it up."

That's exactly what the Conquistadores did.

El Camino real regained its focus behind Silver, Marissa Chavez and Shanna Puruncajas to win set four and then scored four of the fibal five points in set five to escape the mild upset.

Chavez, Puruncajas and Silver had 12, 11 and eight kills for El Camino Real.

Kelly Gegenheimer had 28 assists and Cassandra De La Cruz had 26 digs. Puruncajas added four aces, including coming through with two huge kills to break open a 11-10 lead in set five for a three point lead.

A Kennedy (11-3) hititng error and a service ace from Ashlynn Parker ended the match.

As far as facing Granada Hills, Silver is quite confident despite two regular season league losses.

"We got it," Silver said. "We can do it. We played some close games with them so we know we can stay in it. We just have to keep our heads up and spirits lifted."