Newbury Park tops rival T.O. to reach girls volleyball semifinals

A rivalry so good, the volleyball gods renewed it for one final postseason installment. Conejo Valley volleyball fans packed the gymnasium at Newbury Park High on Oct. 28 to watch the host Panthers hold off Thousand Oaks in a five-set classic, 25-16, 25-20, 21-25, 22-25, 15-6, and advance to the CIF-Southern Section Division 3 semifinals.“Crosstown rivals — it means more than anything,” Newbury Park head coach Chris Forrest said. “If we beat another team from out of town, it wouldn’t have meant as much.”It was the final game of Thousand Oaks head coach James Park's storied coaching career, having announced before the season he would be retiring at the end of the season.“I thought maybe we were going to go down 3-0,” Park said. “The girls had different ideas.”A spirited Thousand Oaks comeback effort saw the Lancers battle back from down two sets to tie the match and force a tiebreaker.The Panthers dominated the decisive fifth set, with setter Keira Overbeck serving up a pair of clutch aces and outside hitter Laney Knopp drilling five kills and an ace for a commanding lead in the fifth set. “You just have to let go of the prior sets and bounce back better than you were before,” Overbeck said. “Act like every point is game point.”Led by Knopp with a match-high 24 kills, a trio of Newbury Park pin hitters erupted for 56 in total, including Charley Knupp (17) and sophomore Emmery Reynolds (15). Laney Knopp drills back-to-back kills for Newbury Park to clinch the second set, 25-20.Panthers are one set away from a semifinals berth. pic.twitter.com/tkYlFOgLfV— VCS Preps (@vcspreps) October 29, 2026Knupp drilled the final kill of the night, taking an Overbeck back set cross-court to ignite the celebration. “To have (weapons) all over, to be able to put Emmery in the middle when we need her to, it is so nice to have options as a setter and to make the blockers guess,” Knupp said. “We don’t have a bad hitter on our team.”The trio outshined Thousand Oaks stars Halle Bryce (17 kills, 12 digs) and Saylor Halvorsen (12 kills, 13 digs), who struggled to find a rhythm early on as strong Panthers serving kept the Lancers out of system while great blocking up front and backline play from liberos Olena Harasymowycz and Emma Christensen dug up well-hit balls. “We knew we had to serve tough,” Forrest said. “That proved to be the case in the fifth set.”Thousand Oaks got clutch serving of its own when junior Sam Caenepeel came into the game to serve and won the fourth set with an ace in the middle of the floor.She finished with a pair of aces while setter Aella Keays racked up 35 assists to go with three digs and an ace of her own. Newbury Park (33-9) will play Valley Christian (24-8) in the Division 3 semifinals in Cerritos on Saturday, Oct. 31. Rio Mesa reaches semisSydney Nunnery had nine kills, 10 digs and two aces, Kyla Sahagun had 20 digs, Sammy Alvarez had seven kills, Aliyah Adams had five kills and four blocks, and Sophia Turner finished with 25 assists, two kills and two aces as Rio Mesa swept Garden Grove-Pacifica, 25-11, 25-22, 25-19, at home on Tuesday, Oct. 27, in a Division 8 quarterfinal match.The Spartans have reached a CIF-SS semifinal for the first time in program history."These girls play so hard because they will do anything to keep this team together,” Rio Mesa head coach Jeff Holloway said. “It is the closest-knit group of players I've maybe ever had." Rio Mesa (15-16) will play at Geffen Academy on Saturday, Oct. 31, at 6 p.m.Santa Clara falls in Div. 11Bella Ruiz had five kills and three blocks, Jane Mowrey and Annabella Jimenez each had eight assists, and Jastine Gomez had 16 digs for Santa Clara in its 25-15, 25-23, 25-19 loss to Tarbut V’ Torah in a Division 11 quarterfinal match on Wednesday, Oct. 28.The Frontier League champion Saints finished the season at 13-17.Dominic Massimino covers volleyball for the Star. He can be reached at dominic.massimino@vcstar.com. For more coverage, follow @vcsdominic on Twitter and Instagram.This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Newbury Park tops rival T.O. to reach girls volleyball semifinals