The Palisades High girls volleyball team has had a dominant regular season, but as everyone knows, records and stats are thrown out come playoff time. Going 12-0 in league play never hurts a team’s confidence though. Head coach Chris Forrest has seen his squad not only win games but dominate them, winning all 12 by a 3-0 margin. But now comes the hard part, starting at home next Tuesday when they open postseason play. Never flinching even in the occasional close matches, the Dolphins are led by team captain Molly Kornfeind and Katie Kaufman, both juniors. In Kornfeind, Pali has the Western League Player of the Year for the second straight year and arguably one of the top players in all of Division II. In the season’s final regular-season game against Westchester, Kornfeind paced the Dolphins with nine kills, six digs, and a .583 hitting percentage. Her prior match was even more impressive as she led the team with 12 kills and 14 digs. ’She’s gotten rid of a couple bad habits,’ Forrest said. ‘She’s added to her arsenal of kills by adding tip shots, drill shots down the line, specific hitting, hitting higher, hitting different sets. We’re working on all of that. ’Molly just she goes out there and gives 110 percent every game and it’s a quality not many players have.’ To help his team stay sharp for the playoffs, Forrest had his Dolphins play in the Redondo Varsity Power Classic so they could match up with the top teams in all of Southern California last weekend. In that event the Dolphins won just one of the six matches they participated in, a 2-0 win over El Segundo (25-18, 25-21). ’The first week of playoffs for us is going to be fairly easy. It’s when we get to the semifinals that we start getting challenged,’ the coach said. Outside hitter Kaufman will be another key cog if PaliHi is to have postseason success. She filled in admirably after an injury to junior Shanna Scott and has earned a permanent spot in the starting lineup. In turn, that gives Forrest considerably more flexibility with his roster even if it poses the challenge of getting both Kaufman and Scott ample playing time. ’Katie’s really stepped it up,’ Forrest said. ‘She’s still in the outside hitter position as a starter because she deserves to be there. ’If you have two great players at one position and you can put them in a different position to [expose] another weakness on the other side of the court’ then you know those aren’t bad problems to have.’ Any problems the Dolphins might have in the City playoffs could stem from letting down their guard. No one in the Western League rose to their level, meaning their worst enemy could be themselves. Forrest is well aware that he has many other players to lean on besides Kornfeind, including senior Meghan Middleton, the team’s other captain. ’Meghan is our setter, she makes a lot happen,’ he said. She never leaves the court. Meghan is a key to everything. ’Maddie Hausberg has been doing a really good job, and Caroline Grande is an outside hitter who’s been playing middle blocker.’ With a first-round bye as the playoffs’ top seed, Palisades will host a game next Tuesday at 7 p.m., with subsequent home games to follow on November 10 and November 15 if they win. The championship match game will be played on November 19 at the Roybal Learning Center.
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