“That may have been our worst match this season,” Anderson said. “The final score doesn’t mean so much to me as quality play and we really didn’t get that quality play in game one.”
The coach believes that the team’s lack of focus was cause for much error; however, in the lower El Camino league, the competition isn’t tough enough to break the Matadors’ undefeated league record. Scan below to read through the five key plays of the match.
1.
First set: The Matadors grab the first point of the match with a double block by outside junior Ellie Cary and middle sophomore Alia Johnson. While this first point was strong, the start of the first set was a shaky one for the team.
“We were too casual in game one,” head coach Colin Anderson said. “We hit a lot of balls out and made a lot of mistakes, and we can’t accept that.”
2.
First set: Johnson continued into the set with strong play. She kept up a consistent block as well as went up for the one every time. Despite the team’s inconsistency in the beginning, MVHS closed out the first set 25-15.
3.
Second set: SCHS’ strong block thwarts the Matadors’ offense twice in a row and MVHS loses the point. An inability to adapt quickly caused for lost points such as this.
“Once they get a serving run, we start to doubt ourselves. We tend to shank more and then we mess up,” junior Selena Liu said. “When our team makes good plays, we tend to believe in ourselves and get confidence.”
The second set was more consistent than the first as the Matadors started off on a five-point run and kept up their play throughout the set. With rare occurrences of such strong SCHS play, MVHS dominated the second set 25-11.
4.
Third set: Li goes for the one off of a solid set by sophomore Kelly Chen. Along with Johnson and Liu, freshman Phoebe Li demonstrated how middles played a major role this match. Normally substitutes, the two players got a lot of chance in the third set to develop their skill. Li’s strong play persisted throughout the set and match.
5.
Third set: For the last three points of the game, Anderson threw Liu in as middle and minutes later she made a kill on the one.
“In a pressure situation, I want us to be ready,” Anderson said, “And Selena stepped in and she did a great job.”
Despite placing the second string on the court, the third set quickly ended 25-17 as players were able to easily adjust to their new positions. This illustrates the versatility of each player on the court. The team hopes to focus on limiting those errors so that they can truly celebrate winning a game in straight sets.
“We need to be able to have that confidence, even though we don’t play the most, to step in and play as well as we can,” senior Kirthi Gomatam said. “Because we’re all good players on this team, we just need to remember that.”
The next home game will be Oct. 8 against Milpitas High School at 6:45 p.m.
