Despite a dramatic increase in confidence from the outcome of the Reno, NV. tournament, the MVHS girls volleyball team rallied hard, but ended up short 1-3 against Homestead High School on Sept. 18.
The team had beaten HHS previously in a tight game in the tournament on the weekend of Sept. 1.
“[The tournament] made us want to win more, made us want to work harder, but the thing is that [HHS] also came out harder than before,” junior Beverly Yu said. “In Reno, I know they were having a really bad game, so they came out today and played their game.”
However, the Matadors lost by a score of 18-25 in the first quarter, 29-31 in the second, 25-20 in the third and 14-25 to finish it off.
After getting off to a fast 6-0 start with aces from senior Vivian Duong, the lead quickly evaporated as the Mustangs began to power through the Matador defense. HHS made a strong run, catching up to take the lead 7-8. The Matadors received serves sloppily, leading to missed passes. The Mustangs served tough, allowing them to take a 16-23 lead and the first set.
“We had a couple of breakdowns. I mean, [HHS] is a great team. They played well and we just made too many mistakes,” coach Colin Anderson said. “We can’t make that many mistakes against this kind of team.”
The team had a hard time getting in rhythm because of the lack of quality passes. Many of the players were not on the top of their game. Frustration could be seen on the defensive players, as they saw their lead slip away. Even though the team tried to stay positive, they were unable to pick their game up, leading to less communication and more chaos on the court.
In the second set, the game tightened up. The Matadors kept themselves within just a few points of the lead the entire set. With the scores of 18-19 and 24-24, pressure rose on both teams to execute their game plans. The Matadors lost the lead, though, and could not regain it, losing the set 29-31.
“We had a lot of runs where we just let [HHS] pound on us,” sophomore Maria Balus said. “We didn’t really go on to the next play, we just kind of stuck there.”
The Matadors tried to focus more on the next point instead of dwelling on the previous one. The team still made mistakes but forced the Mustangs to make errors as well. The team gained momentum at the end of the third set and fought to a 25-20 win.
Although the team gained momentum, HHS played with more focus. The Mustangs went on a few runs to widen the lead. Unable to pass tough serving runs, the Matadors lost the final set 14-25.
“I thought we had some good moments but we also had a lot of bad moments,” Yu said. “I remember in the first game, we had a stretch of really, really bad moments. We couldn’t get the ball up, and I think that cost us the game.”
Despite this loss, the team hopes to improve with drills practicing specific skills and a better sense of delegation when it comes to gameplay.
“I think we need to take a little bit better care of our passing, our serve receive, a few breakdowns there,” Anderson said. “And we need to get the ball to some of our strong hitters … We need to start running our offense and getting the ball there.”
The Matadors’ next home game is on Thursday, Sept. 28.
