The Palo Alto High School volleyball team walked off the court with a 3-2 victory against Mountain View, Sept. 29, in the big gym after a match of endless rallies.
In the first game, the Vikings started out strong, scoring the first couple points. However, the Spartans came back, overtaking the Vikings. It was a back-and-forth battle as the teams took turns sharing the lead. Eventually, the Vikings won the first game, 25-23.
“It felt like a playoff,” head coach Dave Winn said. “The girls were really playing hard and they knew their season was on the line so they had to win.”
In the second game, senior Marissa Florant started the game off with two aces. Mountain View then came back with a vengeance capitalizing on their own strong kills. Again the two teams were neck and neck, raising the intensity of the game. The Vikings blocked shots and countered with kills of their own, but ended up losing, 25-22.
“We got a little passive on serve receives in some of the games we’ve lost,” Winn said. “However, we have a lot of fighters on this team.”
The third game started off strong, with Palo Alto making up for the previous game they lost. The rallies continued, and the Vikings were determined to defend their home court, refusing to give up. Mountain View continued to attack and ended up winning the game, 27-25.
As the fourth round began, the Vikings picked up their game and went in with a new attitude. As the battle continued, the suspense started to build up. Trading the lead with Mountain View, the Vikings finally came out on top, winning 27-25.
“It was pretty crazy,” sophomore defensive specialist Ashley Shin said. “We had so much energy, and it was really fun.” “We played well, and we managed to get back a win.”
In the final game, with the match tied at 2-2, both teams were desperate for victory. With a tiebreak game of only 15 points, both teams were pressured to reduce any serving or hitting errors. The Vikings started off strong by leading the game and continued to build their lead by countering blocks and kills. Mountain View rallied, hoping to regain some lost points, but turned it over back to the Vikings. The Vikings fought to the end and won the last game, 15-10.
“It was a nice surprise tonight,” Winn said. “Winning a kill when we needed it brought a little spark to us.”
The girls felt that their team continued to persevere as they cheered each other on.
“I’m really proud of how we played.” senior co-captain Cassie Prioleau said. “It was a really tough match and they had some really good players. We just never gave up; we kept fighting and supporting each other to the end.”
Even though the team came out victorious, there is still room for improvement according to sophomore middle blocker Melanie Wade.
“Next time we’re going to work on being a little more consistent,” Wade said, “but the team did a great job.”
Winn said he was satisfied with the girls’ playing and hopes that they keep up the intensity.
“We played against a tough team, but we didn’t always play great,” Winn said.”We were fortunate to come up on top.
The Vikings will compete against Saratoga in their next away game at 6:45 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 1. The next home game will be against Homestead at 6:45 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 6.