Kevin O'Brien
The Palo Alto Vikings girls' volleyball team huddles after scoring a point against the Milpitas Trojans on Thursday night, at Palo Alto High School. According to Viking head coach Chris Crader, the Vikings couldn't get any momentum once they lost the first set. "When you get down, you don't have to be amazing at the moment. You just have to find a way to just chip away, and get a little bit better," Crader said. "But we couldn't find that, and I couldn't find the right lineup to kind of generate any momentum."
The Palo Alto Vikings girls’ volleyball team (21-7) fell in a sweep to the Milpitas Trojans (18-9) on Senior Night Thursday at home.
This loss marks the Vikings’ third league loss this season, moving them to second place behind the Los Alto Eagles (21-5).
According to Trojan head coach Marissa Canez, the Trojans had to prepare with a good mindset to beat the Vikings.
“They [the Vikings] were on a mission,” Canez said. “So being set on good energy and having a good practice yesterday, really transitioned well into today’s game.”
According to Viking head coach Chris Crader, the game plan heavily relied on learning from the past matches against the Trojans.
“We’ve played them [the Trojans] three times before, so we had a pretty good idea of what they like to do, what their strengths are, and what their weaknesses are,” Crader said. “We talked about those games before the match a little bit, and tried to execute the things that have worked for us against them.”
The Vikings struggled to execute serves in the first set, making errors on four serves out of the gate. This allowed the Trojans to amount a small lead early in the set. The Vikings rallied it to a tie at 9-9, then jumping out to a lead late in the game 20-18, but the Trojans stole the lead late, winning the set 25-23.
The loss in the first set didn’t seem to effect the Vikings as they took the lead in the second set, 10-7. Once again, the Trojans came back, tying the game 16-16. After the Trojans took a 22-18 lead, Viking sophomore Maura Hambly scored consecutive points for the Vikings, giving them momentum. Unfortunately for the Vikings, they couldn’t return the Trojan’s powerful attacks. The Trojans outlasted the Vikings, 26-24.
The Trojans used the momentum from the previous sets to jump out to a 13-6 lead over the Vikings in the third set. The Vikings scored consecutively, blocking the Trojans’ offensive attacks, but it wasn’t enough. The Trojan’s won the third and final set convincingly, defeating the Vikings 25-17, completing the sweep.
According to Canez, the Trojans did a solid job across the board, playing consistently to earn the win.
“We had better passing today,” Canez said. “Our communication was good. Our hitting in certain spots was great. So overall, I think we did really good today.”
According to Canez, the Trojans have had a successful non-league season, and should be targeting a playoff appearance.
“We’re looking to get a playoff bid just because of our non league record, and we’re hoping that the points that we get from our league will put us up into playoffs,” Canez said.
According to Crader, it’s unfortunate to lose on senior night, but the Vikings have had a great season, and are looking to end on a high note.
“We’ve had so many great performances this season, so I think the timing sucks, losing, especially on Senior Night,” Crader said. “You have to take little pieces from the game and also learn flush it. We have to get back to being the team that that we know we are, and getting better from there, as we go into our last match on Tuesday.”
The Vikings remain in second place in the Santa Clara Vallet De Anza league, trailing the Los Altos Eagles.
The Vikings will aim to get back into the win column and remain second in league, facing the Homestead Mustangs (24-7), who are third in league, at 6:45 p.m. Tuesday at Homestead.