Paly won three out of four games against Gunn on Tuesday, Oct. 4, at home in an exciting and aggravating match.

The Vikings lost the first game due to unforced errors and a weak block, but were reenergized in game two and came back to win three games in a row.

After losing the first game, coach David Huan gave his girls a pep talk to remind them of their goal.

“Basically, we had to do everything a little bit better,” Huan said. “[I reminded them] we’ve seen and beat tougher teams than [Gunn].”

Sophomore Hillary Ford said, “[He told us] that we didn’t bring our best game. It was Gunn’s game and we had to step up and play our best."

In the second game, Paly started using Gunn’s strong block to earn kills by angling their hits so that the block would go out of bounds.

“Gunn put up big hands at the net and we used them to our advantage,” Huan said. “We picked up many kills by tooling them.”

Ford said, “I think that the key with any strong block is just seeing it when you’re in the air hitting and adjusting so that you can hit around it. There is always a hole or an angle that you can take or somewhere that you can tip over or around it.”

The game got exciting when Gunn came back from being down, 13-8, and tied it up at 20-20. Gunn remained within one point of Paly as Ford made a kill down the middle tying the score at 23-23. Later Ford and junior Ariel Ajagu made a strong block giving Paly the lead. Gunn tied it up again at 24-24, but melted down and made two unforced errors, winning the game for Paly, 26-24.

By then the match could have gone in either team’s favor, but the Lady Vikes had their sights set on winning.

“We realized what we had to do,” junior Erica Gage said, “and we had to win.”

Huan said, “Though we won the second game, I wasn’t very comfortable with the way we played. I thought we could have played much better, but credit that to the team, we hustled and played hard despite our mistakes.”

The Vikings won the third and fourth games with slightly less exciting scores, 25-19 and 25-21.

“Paly made a lot of adjustments in the second, third, and fourth games and we weren’t able to counter that,” senior Gunn setter Maile Krauss said.

Outside hitters, senior Becca Hageman and junior Lindsey Speigleman stood out, Huan said.

“Becca had 19 kills,” Huan said. “Both of our outside hitters did well in terms of turning sets into kills. Our middles also got better at blocking throughout the game.”

Krauss said, “[I noticed] Erica Gage and [Lindsey] Speigleman. Speigleman got most of the kills, unfortunately.”

Even though the Vikings won the match, few team members were completely confident in their win.

“[I don’t feel] as good as I’d like to feel,” Huan said. “It could have been a lot cleaner in terms of play. It could have been a better match.”

Gage said, “I think we should have beaten them by a lot more. We didn’t bring our ‘A’ game. I’m happy that we won, but there is always room for improvement. Next time we face off we will bring all of it.”

With the win against Gunn, Paly is now 3-2 in league.

Paly will play Mountain View on Wednesday, Oct 12 at 6:45 p.m. in the big gym. Ticket prices for adults are $6, other schools’ students are $3, and Paly students get in free.

A photo essay of Tuesdays volleyball match against Gunn can be found at the following address.

http://voice.paly.net/view_photo_essay.php?id=3