Titles for two

Mike Sciacca

Jennifer and Martha Gardikas have been playing competitive

volleyball for so long that it was bound to happen.

In late November, Martha, an 18-year-old senior at Marina High,

helped lead the Vikings to the 2002 CIF Southern Section Division I-A

girls’ volleyball title.

Marina defeated top-ranked Mira Costa in the championship match

played at Cypress College on Nov. 23.

Two weeks later, her older sister, Jennifer, who turns 20 in

January, helped guide Golden West College to an unprecedented 10th

consecutive State championship.

The sixth seed Rustlers defeated host and second seed Delta

College of San Joaquin in the Dec. 7 final.

Jennifer was able to watch Martha and Marina win the school’s

second CIF title in five years, but Martha was unable to make the

trip north to watch Jennifer and Golden West once again turn the

state tournament into the “Rustler Invitational.”

The first time the sisters doubled up like this was at the 2000

Junior Nationals in Salt Lake City, when Martha played for a 16’s

open squad that won a silver medal and Jennifer was on an 18’s club

team that won a gold medal.

As volleyball players, the two have similar talents and have won

similar honors.

As sisters, the two are close.

“We get along very well, although with such different schedules

right now, we don’t see each other that often,” Martha Gardikas said.

“We still spend time together whenever we can. It’s pretty special

for both of us to be able to win major volleyball titles so close to

one another.”

Martha Gardikas played for two years at Huntington Beach High

before transferring to Marina. Her senior year culminated in her

earning first-team All-Sunset League and second-team All-CIF.

“Winning CIF was such amazing experience,” she said. “Everything

just came together, but our team worked extremely hard to become a

championship team. We just believed and stayed focused. What’s

amazing is that we won this title one year after not playing so

well.”

Martha Gardikas said the turning point in Marina’s 2002 season

came very early -- it was the first game of the season, and the

opponent was Corona del Mar.

Marina was down two games in that match, but rallied back to stun

the Sea Kings.

“That was a huge confidence boost to win against a team of

Corona’s caliber,” she said. “From that point on, all of our games

were like that. We never gave up and put it all on the line in every

match.”

Jennifer Gardikas, who prepped and earned all-league status at

Huntington Beach High, ended up coming to Golden West College after

the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001.

Jennifer was a student and athlete at New York University, playing

women’s volleyball on a team that also included former Huntington

Beach High teammate and childhood friend Serena Bountour, when the

terrorists attacked.

After the attacks, her coach gathered the women’s volleyball team

and had them find shelter in a building that was two floors below

court level of the university gym, and the team stayed put in the

bomb-shelter-like room until later that evening.

Jennifer Gardikas managed to get a flight out of La Guardia

Airport on Friday the week of the attacks.

“It seemed so surreal, but we could see it right in front of us,”

she said, noting that the NYU campus was less than two miles, or 20

blocks, from the World Trade Center towers. “I was able to talk with

my family, and we had a TV so we could get news updates. Before the

attacks, I hadn’t planned to come home until Christmas, but I was

able to get a flight home on that Friday.”

She never went back to NYU.

“I talked things out with my family, and they supported me with

whatever I wanted to do, although my mom did want me to stay home,”

she said. “I was going to go back, but I weighed everything and ended

up staying here.”

Through the help of Rustlers women’s volleyball coach Albert

Gasparian, Jennifer Gardikas was able to enroll at Golden West, and

went on to earn a starting spot on the team, a team loaded with

outside hitters, including Jennifer.

She started for the Rustlers in the state tournament and led

Golden West in kills in a tournament-opening win.

Jennifer Gardikas learned this week that she had earned first-team

All-Orange Empire Conference honors.

“It’s been a great year, but it’s so strange to think what a

difference a year can make,” she said. “I was in New York and having

a great time going to school and playing volleyball, and then the

attacks ended up altering everything. It’s really interesting how

things work out.”

* MIKE SCIACCA covers sports and features. He can be reached at

(714) 965-7171 or by e-mail at michael.sciacca@latimes.com.