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According to junior defense specialist Tiffany Tsung, both teams played scrappily, which lead to intense rallies. Mountain View’s strong offense was suppressed by Paly’s defense and did not have a chance to unleash their hitting power. Mountain View’s strong offense was led by all-league standout Brittany Howard.
“She [Mountain View’s outside hitter Brittany Howard] is definitely one of the best that I’ve seen come up through the ranks since Kerri Walsh,” Paly’s head coach Dave Winn said. “For us to be able to hold her to 14 kills in four games is a big testament to our defense. Mt. View has a lot of talent besides Brittany, but we just did a little better job at keeping them out of the system, so they couldn’t display all their strengths.”
Palo Alto took an early lead and steadily widened it to win the first game, 25-16.
At the start of the second game Mountain View took the first three points, but Paly rallied back after a kill by senior captain and outside hitter Trina Ohms. Paly went on to win the game, 25-20.
Mountain View turned up the heat in the third game, starting out with a 7-3 lead. The Vikings’ refused to go down without a fight, but made many serving errors and lost the game, 20-25.
“Mountain View played great, but we made a lot of errors,” Winn said. “We got out of focus a little bit, one thing after another — and that’s what volleyball’s like, it’s contagious. When one person makes an error, it’s just more likely somebody else might.”
Paly came back with renewed energy in the fourth game, seizing the first five points and keeping a steady five point lead. Mountain View brought the score to 24-23, but was unable to prevent Palo Alto from taking the game at 25-23.
According to Ohms, the match was difficult for both teams.
“Our quote of the week is ‘sports don’t build character, they reveal it,’ ” Ohms said, “and that’s what this game showed. … It was never a good game for both teams. It just showed the team’s heart and willpower to fight through really difficult situations.”
Junior starting outside hitter Maddie Kuppe did not play due to a leg injury, but cheered the team on from the sidelines. As a result, sophomore setter and defense specialist Shelby Knowles stepped up to fill Kuppe’s spot as a starting outside hitter. Junior middle blocker Melanie Wade made up for Kuppe’s absence with 20 kills.
“It’s going to be another test of our team to deal with one of our starters being injured and a lot of people in different situations,” Ohms said. “We’re all working hard to be one unit and to get to the next point. Every point counts.”
Kuppe’s loss will be felt when Paly plays Los Gatos later this week.
“I think we feel really pretty good going to that match [against Los Gatos],” Wade said. “Of course, it’s going to be difficult without Maddie there.”
According to Winn, perennial powerhouse Los Gatos is a hard team to beat.
Palo Alto currently leads second-place Los Gatos by two points, so Paly can win the league title even if Los Gatos defeats them.
“We’re going to take it point by point, step by step,” Winn said. “Although we’re a little bit closer to a league title, we don’t want to look any further than our next opponent.”
Palo Alto will face Los Gatos at 6:45 p.m. on Thursday in Paly’s main gym.
Editor’s Note: The original version of this story mistakenly indicated the score of the game was 4-1. The Vikings actually won 3-1, as the winners of volleyball matches are determined by the best of three out of five games.