The Palo Alto girls’ varsity volleyball team defeated Santa Teresa on Tuesday, Sept. 5 in the first pre-season game. The Lady Vikes came out strong and won the match in three straight games.

“This was a great way to start the season,” head coach Dave Winn said. “The girls did a great job of implementing our main goals in the match as we’ve been doing them in practice.”

Defensive specialist junior Abbie Havern said that “Everyone was really solid,” and “Team chemistry was really good; everyone talked a lot.”

Paly took the lead in the first game after a prolonged rally. Soon after, however, Santa Teresa was able to take advantage of a few Paly errors and gained the lead to make it 5-1, the only significant lead they maintained. While Paly started off shakily, they soon came back to lead, and won the first game 25-14.

“We served tough and did a nice job handling the serve receive,” Winn said.

Paly dominated the second game, securing a 25-10 win. However, in the third game, Santa Teresa began taking more risks on the court, keeping the score close for the duration of the match. A battle at the net finished the match with a Paly victory, 25-23.

“The third game was closer than it should’ve been,” junior Hillary Ford said. “We need to keep it intense and finish.”

Despite the close third game, Winn was pleased with the performance of the team.

“With this match as a starting foundation, we’ve set the bar pretty high for the standard of play for our varsity,” Winn said.

The Vikes look forward to playing their first league game on Tuesday, Sept. 19 at 6:45p.m. at Homestead.