When it came time to pick which of his players deserved all-tournament recognition last Saturday night at the Chatsworth Invitational, the choice was clear for Thousand Oaks girls volleyball coach James Park.
Junior outside hitter London Halvorsen was named most valuable player after her 12 kills in the finals against Notre Dame Academy, while her freshman sister Saylor Halvorsen also made the all-tournament squad, serving back-to-back aces to give the Lancers match point in the third set of a 25-11, 14-25, 15-10 triumph.
"It's so much fun playing with her," Saylor said of her sibling following the grueling two-day tournament in which the Lancers went 9-0 and won 18 of 20 sets. "It's cool being on the same team. We feed off each others' energy and the biggest thing I've learned from London is keeping the energy up at all times."
At 6-foot-2, London wears No. 16 and is one inch taller than Saylor, who wears No. 15 and plays middle blocker. Now they are following in the footsteps of their mother Carrie, who played for Thousand Oaks alongside twin sister Janie in the 1990s.
"We made the CIF quarterfinals our junior year [in the fall of 1992] and graduated in '94," recalled Carrie Halvorsen, whose maiden name is Penfield. "I went on to play at the University of Arizona and Janie [whose married name is Rasmussen] played at Colorado State."
The Lancers lost in the second round of the Division 4 playoffs last fall and the best they have done in 19 years under Park is the quarterfinals. The Halvorsens hope to change that and they came up big again to close out Tuesday's Marmonte League opener at Oaks Christian. On match point, Saylor came up with a block to keep the rally alive before London ended the 32-30, 25-16, 25-17 sweep with a kill.
The upset marked the Lions' first league loss since 2019.
Meanwhile, the Lancers (15-1) are off to their fastest start since winning 22 of their first 23 matches in 2007 and are on a quest to win their first league title since going unbeaten in the Marmonte three years in a row from 2010-12. They have reeled off 12 straight wins since a nonleague setback to Harvard-Westlake on Aug. 27.
Only four of the team's 13 varsity players are seniors: setter Reagan Maguire, defensive specialist Alyssa Hunnicutt and hitters Addison Evans and Madison Coleman. London, the team leader in both blocks and kills last fall, is one of six juniors on the roster. Saylor is the sole freshman. The other two girls are 10th-graders, including Hunnicutt's younger sister Gwen, an opposite hitter.
"It's been awhile," Park said when asked to name the last time the school won a section title. "I believe it was the '80s."
To date, the Lancers' only titles came in the 2-A Division in 1986 and 1987 under coach Ron Beick when side-out scoring was still being used. The Lancers lost the 4A final in 1988 and have never reached the championship round since, not even when the Penfield twins were in the lineup.
There is still a lot of volleyball to be played between now and the playoffs, but the Halvorsen sisters have a chance to take the Lancers even farther than their mom and aunt did.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times .
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