Venice Squads Continue League Play

We are in April now, meaning that the spring teams at Venice High are entering the most important stretch of the season. Some teams are jockeying for playoff position in the City Section while others are battling to get into big tournaments. Let’s take a closer look:

Baseball

The Gondoliers had an up and down week against defending Western League champion Palisades. Venice took sole possession of first place in the standings Tuesday with a surprising 4-2 win over the host Dolphins.

“We were finally able to put everything together in that game: pitching, hitting, and fielding," Venice Coach Walter Fujita said. "Earlier in the year, we told the kids that they aren’t as good as they think they are and they took that to heart in that game and proved us wrong.”

Palisades got revenge two days later, however, beating the host Gondoliers 3-1. Venice was able to bounce back with a 7-5 road win over University, moving them to 5-1 in league and tied atop the standings with Palisades.

Softball

The Gondolier girls have been plenty busy making up league games that were rained out earlier in the season. The week started off on a disappointing note as Venice held a huge lead over perennial power Westchester before letting it slip away.

“That game was tough because we were up eight runs in the first few innings, but we just slowly let it get away one run at a time," Coach Jessica Ruiz said. "We just made a lot of defensive errors that we can’t make if we want to contend in this league."

The Gondoliers lost that game 17-13 but were able to come back to notch an easy 9-3 win over Hamilton in a makeup game Tuesday. That win put Venice at 3-1 in league play with several more league games coming up in the next few days.

Volleyball

Coach Allen Hunt's varsity boys squad had only one league match this week, but the result was a big boost to the Gondoliers' confidence. In the first match of the second round of league play, Venice played Fairfax--a team it lost to 3-1 in the previous meeting.

This time, the Gondoliers prevailed in five sets and moved above the .500 mark for the first time all year.

“Our main goal coming into today was to get our middles more involved, and we did that today," Hunt said. "I expected us to serve better, pass better, and run our offense well, and that’s what happened.”

Venice then traveled to Woodland Hills for a nonleague match against Taft and the Toreadors prevailed 3-2.  Venice must now prepare for a Westchester team that it was able to sweep 3-0 in the first round of league.

Tennis

The Venice boys squad has made it through the toughest part of its schedule, as it played three matches versus the top two teams in the Western League standings. Sandwiched between 7-0 losses to defending league and City champion Palisades was a 6-1 loss to Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies. 

“It’s been a tough go, but we’ve had trouble this year getting our full lineup out there," C0ach Randy Chew said. "Either one of our guys is out of town, or they are hurt, or in our last match one of our kids gave blood without telling me and I had to sit him. It’s been tough but we will be fine.”

Venice has the weekend off to rest before traveling to Westchester for another league match Monday. All of the Gondoliers' remaining matches will be away.

Swimming and Diving

The Gondoliers continued to cruise through league competition this week, posting easy wins in league dual meets against Westchester and University. The team also swam in the Beverly Hills Invitational last week and Coach Sophie Sabbah said the Gondoliers went for a reason.

“With the exception of Palisades and us, our league is pretty weak," she said. "So the reason we go to the invitational is to go against the best teams in the City and show the kids that there are great teams out there.”

Venice now has nearly a week to rest up for its biggest head-to-head meet of the season next Thursday at Palisades. 

Now let’s take a look at how Animo Charter Venice is doing.

Baseball

The Pirates have lost just two games this season, and both have been at the hands of Port of Los Angeles. After suffering a 10-6 defeat earlier in the season, Animo Venice got blanked at home, 17-0 on Tuesday. However, the Pirates were able to bounce back with a 17-1 win over Elizabeth Learning Center and a 26-2 rout of Animo Robinson.

Softball

The Lady Pirates continued their immense struggles this week, as they too fell to Port of Los Angeles, 23-3.  They will wrap up the season with three league games next week as they play Community Harvest on Monday at 3 p.m. at Baldwin Hills Recreation Center, then host Harbor Teacher Prep on Wednesday and Animo South Los Angeles on Friday at 3 p.m. at Oakwood High.