SYLMAR - Dave Gutierrez couldn't help but feel nostalgic.

The Lancaster High girls' volleyball coach was in his old gym Saturday, coaching against his former team in the championship match of one of the area's longest-running events.

Unfortunately for Gutierrez, it was the same old result: Canyon High School won its third consecutive title and fourth in six years with a 25-22 victory over the Eagles in the final of the 17th annual Sylmar tournament.

Gutierrez, a 1991 Sylmar graduate, coached Canyon to tournament titles in 2001 and 2004, before accepting the job at Lancaster in the summer of 2005.

"I trained all of those girls over there," said Gutierrez, who helped Lancaster become only the second team from the Antelope Valley - joining Littlerock in 2003 - to reach the Sylmar tournament final.

"It's kind of cool to see them go to the finals and play them."

Reaching the final of the area's second-largest tournament might have been a lofty goal for Gutierrez a month ago, after the Eagles failed to make it out of pool play at the Arcadia tournament.

But thanks to the consistent play of senior setter Roxanne Neely and the development of several younger players, Lancaster is in position to win the Golden League title with three matches remaining, the most important being Thursday's showdown against visiting Littlerock.

"We're a whole different team," said Gutierrez, whose team was the only Antelope Valley-area entry to advance past the quarterfinals of the single-elimination playoffs at Sylmar.

"We've changed positions around three or four times. Roxy's setting now instead of hitting."

After 12th-seeded Burbank upset No. 5 Venice in the first round of the playoffs, Lancaster wasted little time knocking off the Bulldogs 25-11 to reach the final four. The Eagles then held off a late rally by Viewpoint of Calabasas to advance to the final with a 25-23 victory.

Lancaster built a 7-2 lead against Canyon, but the Cowboys took advantage of their depth along the front line to score 15 of the next 19 points. Lancaster rallied to pull within 23-22, but Canyon responded with consecutive kills to hand the Eagles their first loss Saturday in 11 games.

"I feel like I got the most out of these girls," Gutierrez said. "We needed some confidence and we needed to build some momentum (for the stretch run). I'm really pleased with (Saturday). I felt like they played really well and they left it all out there."

In addition to Lancaster, five of the other six Golden League teams competed Saturday at Sylmar and Birmingham High of Lake Balboa.

Quartz Hill won its pool, but was knocked off 25-21 by Granada Hills in the quarterfinals.

Highland took second in its pool behind Venice and lost 25-23 to Sylmar in the first round of the 12-team playoffs.

Littlerock placed third in its pool, Knight was fourth in its pool and Antelope Valley finished fifth in its pool.