Despite taking an early lead, Varsity Girls Volleyball fell 3-2 to Los Altos High School on its Senior Night. The Matadors opened strong, winning the first set 25-20 and edging out a tightly-contested second set 27-25. However, LAHS responded by taking the third and fourth sets, before closing out with a 15-5 victory in the fifth to secure the reverse sweep.
Despite the loss, senior and outside hitter Leah Desai and head coach Nadia Lan agree the team’s performance exceeded expectations. Desai highlights that the Matadors focused on staying positive, enjoying the occasion rather than letting nerves take over.
“Their team is first in the league right now and it’s undefeated, so we knew this was going to be really tough,” Desai said. “But we told everyone, ‘Let’s just make this a really fun game.’ I think everyone came into this without expectations and pressure, and more to celebrate the seniors.”
Before warmups, the team honored its six seniors with gifts and speeches from teammates. The lineup was also altered so each senior had more play time. Lan and Desai agree that this energy led to the Matadors’ early momentum.
“I never got to serve, and I got to serve today,” Desai said. “Jenna and Victoria don’t play front row. So for us to be able to score points while doing that was really fun to see. We don’t get to see that a lot, and family and friends were here, so everyone was able to feed off the energy in the crowd.”
Lan says the team focused on addressing its main weaknesses, serve-receive and positioning, in the weeks leading up to the game. The improvement she saw during Senior Night makes her confident in the team’s preparation heading into the post-season.
“We haven’t done so well on the serve-receive, so we’ve had to work on that a lot the past weeks,” Lan said. “It really showed today — we actually passed well on our serve-receive. Even though we lost today, I feel the team chemistry is still there, and I saw they performed better than the previous matches.”
However, Desai says the turning point of the match came when LAHS began tipping the ball more frequently, forcing MVHS to adjust defensively.
“That’s been a weakness we’ve had throughout the season,” Desai said. “It’s something we practice a lot, but when a team goes from hitting to tipping, it’s hard to read because you know they’re capable of hitting, so the defense still wants to make sure we’re able to dig.”
Overall, both Desai and Lan believe the Matadors’ strong showing against LAHS provides confidence heading into CCS and evidence of its improvement throughout the season. Desai believes maintaining a strong “mental game” throughout matches will lead to more wins in the future.
“If we play at this level going into CCS, we have a good chance to go far,” Lan said. “They have to keep the team chemistry and energy up. When they play as a team, they do some amazing things, so I want to keep that going.”
