Paly’s varsity volleyball team had a sloppy start to their pre-season Sept 6. The Lady Vikes gave it their all in their four-game match against Notre Dame Belmont, but still lost, 3-1.

"We came out tentatively," varsity coach David Huan said. "They [the Paly players] weren’t as aggressive as I would have liked them to be, but they stepped it up."

Junior Erica Gage said,"Team chemistry was fine. We were just a bit nervous during this match. I think that we just got all our mistakes and errors out this match and tomorrow we’ll blend together as a unit."

In the first game, the first point started a pattern for the match; Paly served and Notre Dame returned the ball: pass, set, kill. Notre Dame was more structured than Paly through out the match and ran more plays.

Paly Junior Lindsey Spiegleman and senior Becca Hagemann got nine kills each, and junior Ariel Ajagu got seven for the whole match. In varsity volleyball the team is expected to get 15 kills per game, said assistant coach Theresa Carey, and the Vikings averaged nine kills a game.

"I think we did really well as this was our first game playing together,” Ajagu said. “I think we’ll do better tomorrow."

The Lady Vikes played two more matches this week winning both, and three more matches on Sept 13, 14, and 15 next week, making for a heavier pre-season than usual.

"I’m actually kind of glad that we’re [playing more matches in pre-season], because I think of it as practice,” Ajagu said. “This game just showed us what we need to work on.”

The official volleyball season kicks off Tuesday, Sept. 20, against Milpitas at Paly. Admission is free for Paly students, $2 for students of other schools, and $5 for adults.