The Viking’s varsity volleyball players turned it around after their Sept. 6 loss to Notre Dame Belmont, shutting down Milpitas High School Tuesday night, 3-0. With a successful pre-season run finished, only losing one match, the varsity team appears to be back on track.

“I think they just got their nerves out,” varsity coach David Huan said. “They are much more comfortable with each other. From one day to the next they became a completely different team.”

Senior Becca Hageman said, “[The pre-season] helped us mesh better together better. We were playing as a team instead of individually.”

The player’s parents have noticed the change in the team’s confidence as well.

“I think they have improved tremendously,” said Kevin Ford, sophomore Hilary Ford’s father. “They were a little shaky in their first outing against Notre Dame Belmont, but now they’re starting to play like a team.”

The team came out strong in the first two games winning, 25-17, and, 25-19, but lost momentum in the third game and began to make mistakes and sloppy plays.

“I think we got a little cocky and just let a few points past us, and pretty soon, we were behind,” Hageman said.

But the team rebounded with a solo block by junior Ariel Ajagu and two aces by junior Lindsey Spiegleman, bringing the score to 19-19. Paly and Milpitas passed the lead back and forth until junior Erica Gage smashed the ball to the back of the court for a kill, which made the score 23-22. This gave Paly the serve, which they promptly lost and just as quickly regained so the score was 24-23, match point. Gage sent a scorching spike almost straight down and Paly won the game, 25-23.

As a result of their team effort, the Lady Vikes executed many more plays than they did in their first pre-season match. Spiegleman led the way with 15 kills, followed by Gage and Hageman with ten and eight kills, respectively.

“Number eight [Spiegleman] had strong hits and always hit line,” Milpitas middle blocker junior Jit Atwald said.

This year, the team’s biggest strengths are their teamwork and uniform skill level.

“They are more well balanced this year,” Ford said. “I think this team doesn’t have a superstar like [graduated senior] Katrina [Zawojski], but they play together better as a team. They could be better because of that.”

Huan said, “I always tell them, and they know this, that they’re better than last year’s team. Last year everyone knew who MVP was, but this year it’s just all over the place. In seven games we’ve had four different kill leaders. Everyone has a category they do well in.”

With more team balance than last year and their first league match won, the Paly varsity team is on their way to a good showing in league this year.

The Paly vs. Gunn home game will take place at 6:45 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 4 in the big gym. Admission for Paly students is free, other students are $2, and $5 for adults.