In their first and only game of the pre-season on Sept. 2, the girls’ varsity volleyball team lost 3-1 at home against higher ranked Monta Vista, which plays in the upper De Anza Division.
To start off the first set, sophomore outside Chloe Zeng, sophomore middle Rucha Patil, junior setter Iris Jin, junior middle Aanya Hotha, freshman outside Siena Baldwin and junior libero Morgan Li readied themselves on the court as Monta Vista prepared to serve.
Despite the Falcons’ attempts to land points, Monta Vista used powerful serves to take an early lead of 6-2 within the first few minutes of the match. However, the Falcons fiercely fought back with an ace and consecutive spikes, eventually tying the score to 6-6 after Hotha smoothly tipped the ball over the net, becoming the matches leading scorer throughout the game.
The match progressed through rapid rallies that led Monta Vista to pull ahead again with a score of 9-6. Toward the end of the first set, after a Matador player spiked the ball, Li and sophomore libero Arielle Fan collided head-on as they both dove for the ball.
This resulted in an immediate timeout from the Falcons. Luckily, Li, who took a strong hit to the neck, quickly recovered and was back on the court. Although the Falcons tried to catch up, they could not make up the large difference — losing the first set 25-17.
As the second set began, Monta Vista took an early 5-0 lead. The Falcons quickly caught up after an attack was received by Zeng, set by Jin and spiked by Hotha, bringing the score up to 6-5 with Monta Vista still in the lead.
From there on, the Falcons and Matadors were neck to neck, each team alternating point after point. As the set progressed, the Falcons picked up their game and slowly gained the lead 23-17. However, the Matadors were able to break the Falcons’ momentum by scoring four points in a row within two minutes.
Despite Monta Vista’s effort to close the lead, the Falcons remained strong and won the set 25-21.
After tying the score, the Falcons went into the third set with high hopes. However, as Monta Vista gained momentum, they scored point after point, extending their lead from 4-0 to 16-4. With such a large gap, the Falcons began making more and more mistakes, eventually losing the third set 25-7.
Going into the fourth set, the Falcons’ pressure increased, as they were down 2-1. The Falcons rebounded after a successful serve from sophomore setter Sophia Wei and a block from Jin. But despite fighting hard to take the fourth set, Monta Vista players proved their strength and closed out the set with a 25-15 win.
Under the guidance of coach Lori Gragnola, the team is working on areas of improvement.
“We need to work on our communication and serve receives,” Jin said. “But I hope this loss is going to open our eyes and make us play better moving forward.”
