Girls Volleyball loses to Mountain View High School 3-0
Matadors fall despite a six point lead in the third set
The team waits in preparation for a spike from a Mountain View hitter.
September 20, 2021
Coming off a tight 3-2 win against Gunn High School, the Matadors looked to continue their streak and improve upon their 7-1 record. However, in their third league game of the season, they fell to Mountain View High School on Sept. 16 with a final score of 3-0, dropping their season record to 7-2 and their league record to 1-2.
According to Jensen, the first set, which ended 25-19, went poorly in part due to the absence of starters senior Marissa Jensen and junior Krupa Shanware in the first set.
“Our overall teamwork was a little bit off today,” Jensen said. “A few of us even had to miss practice yesterday because we were so overworked with school and the games — we just needed a break.”
Despite not playing the first set, Jensen ended the game with two kills (points scored) on six attacks — good for the fifth best kill percentage on the team — and second best among middles. Jensen also accrued three blocks throughout the match, a game high.
“I’m able to put a block pretty well, which is helpful against some of the bigger hitters that we struggled against in the first set,” Jensen said. “But overall, the combination of mindset [and] different unforced errors being made on the court made it pretty hard to overcome [early deficits].”
Junior Rishita Madhdhipatla believes that Jensen’s blocking as well as the hitters “going for the kill” were reasons that the Matadors were able to remain close in score to Mountain View throughout all three sets. Both Madhdhipatla and Jensen point to “low mentality” throughout the game as the reason that the team lost and failed to capitalize on its six point lead late in the third set.
“A lot of people were way in their heads and it felt like a lot of individual players on the court instead of one united team,” Jensen said. “Overall, it’s just that mindset. We know our skills and we know how to implement them. It was just an unfortunate game. We’ll get better and move on for the next one.”
