Varsity Girls Volleyball fell 3-0 to Palo Alto High School on Tuesday, Oct. 10, bringing its overall league record to 5-4.
The Matadors successfully performed both offensively and defensively at the start of the first set, allowing them to take the early lead. However, the set quickly changed course as PAHS’ strong defense allowed it to take the upper hand later in the set, ending it at 25-20.
Senior and outside hitter Evelyn Yang mentions that the game went downhill very quickly in the first set, pointing out the mistakes the team made throughout the game and what it needs to improve on in the future.
“We were down by a lot, and each set felt really fast, so we lost a lot, and that continued throughout the game,” Yang said. “We weren’t anticipating the dump and not covering the overpass kills, so we need to work on anticipating the plays more and trusting each other more.”
The next two sets followed in a similar fashion: PAHS’ defense remained constant throughout the game, overpowering MVHS’ gameplay. Although PAHS took a 25-14 win in the second set, MVHS built back up their momentum again during the third set, but it wasn’t enough for them to secure a comeback, ending the set at 25-21.
Junior and middle blocker Samantha Tong reflected on how each team played and attributed the team’s loss to low energy and motivation, mainly due to the absence of junior and outside hitter Kiana Mark.
“We struggled with keeping our heads up in the game because Kiana and I are big energetic people on this team, so having her out of the game was tough,” Tong said. “We made a lot of errors and Palo Alto is a very strong and stable team, so we just need to work on [keeping] our side calm and stable and practice out of system hitting.”
