No. 1 Granada Hills Opens City Playoffs Against Bell

Granada Hills High, which went undefeated and captured the Northwest Valley Conference title, is top seeded in the City Section 4-A boys’ volleyball playoffs.

The Highlanders (13-0, 10-0 in conference play), who are top seeded in 4-A for the first time, will play host to No. 16 Bell in the first round Wednesday.

Other 4-A first-round matches include No. 11 Westchester at No. 6 Chatsworth, No. 10 Kennedy at No. 7 Jefferson, No. 12 Taft at No. 5 Venice and No. 14 Cleveland at No. 3 University.

Van Nuys (11-2, 9-1), which won the Valley Pac-8 Conference, is seeded second in the 3-A playoffs and will play host to No. 15 Sherman Oaks CES.

Other 3-A matches include No. 9 Sylmar at No. 8 Fairfax, No. 12 Canoga Park at No. 5 Garfield, No. 11 Belmont at No. 6 Monroe and No. 13 L.A. CES at No. 4 Grant.

Committed: Thousand Oaks High opposite hitter John Penfield has committed to Cal State Northridge. The 6-foot-5 Penfield is the kills leader for the Lancers, the eighth-ranked team in Southern Section Division I.

Taking over: Lura Bleiberg has been named girls’ volleyball coach at Thousand Oaks High. Bleiberg, who played at Royal and Moorpark College, replaces Robert Haar.

Signing up: Right-handed pitcher Brad Foss and infielder-pitcher John Leicester have signed with Northridge.

Foss, a graduate of Baldwin Park High, is a sophomore at East L.A. College. Leicester is a senior at Palisades High.

Nation’s best: George Roumain of Pepperdine and Chad Strickland of Northridge have been selected All-Americans in volleyball.

Former La Canada High standout Donny Harris of UC Santa Barbara and ex-Highland standout Ryan Millar of Brigham Young were also named to the team.

Pepperdine’s Kevin Barnett and former Pierce College standout Jason Ring of Hawaii were named to the second team.

Skill master: Keith Romar, a sophomore at Birmingham High, won the 14-15 age division of the Toyota Golf Skills Challenge last weekend at Fullerton Golf Course.

Participants were tested on all phases of the game.