Racing across the court, junior setter Dasha Gousseva maneuvered through her teammates and tried to set up the play during a tough match against Gunn on Sept. 22. She dove for the ball and bump-setted perfectly to junior outside Riley Carter, who then smashed the ball down for a point.
This kind of teamwork led the Falcons to a 3-0 victory over the Titans. The team’s league record as of Sept. 26 was 3-1.
The team started off strong, defeating Gunn in the first set 25-12. Gunn fought back the second game, but the Falcons remained composed and pulled through 25-23. They also took the third set 25-23.
On Sept. 24, the falcons were able to defeat Santa Clara 3-0. With their strong offense, the Falcons were able to keep the Bruins under 20 each set; 25-16 the first set, 25-18 the second set and closing the game at 25-17 the third set.
In the girls second league game on Sept. 15 against Milpitas, the game started off poorly for the Falcons when they lost their serving advantage, but senior libero Julia Vita was able to bring the team to a lead with her quality serves. The girls won the first set 25-17. During the second set, Milpitas had countless rotation errors, and the Falcons triumphed 25-20. In the third set, the girls were able to close up the game 25-10, with great kills from sophomore outside Catherine Hulme.
Hulme said that the girls hope to continue working well together as a team.
“It's going to be harder to go to CCS because there are fewer bids in this lower division, and so the higher we get in league, the better chance we have [of] going to CCS,” Hulme said.
On Sept. 13, the girls lost to Cupertino 3-0 in the first league game of the season.
“We definitely should have beaten them, but we tend to play down to teams levels or up to teams levels so we never keep our playing consistent,” Vita said.
The girls have a long way to go and are still trying to grow and improve their young team.
“There isn't a ton of experience on our team,” Hulme added. “But as a group, I think we can definitely improve and help each other out, that way we're going to have lots of improvements.”
Due to printing deadlines, the Falcon could not cover the games against Fremont on Sept. 27 and Wilcox on Sept. 29.