Palo Alto is ranked first in the Central Coast Section division by the San Jose Mercury News and is undefeated in Santa Clara Valley Athletic League play, extending the Viking’s winning streak to 22 games. According to maxpreps.com, a subsidiary of CBS Sports, Paly volleyball is currently ranked 18th in the state.

Paly seized a solid eight-point lead and breezed through the rest to win the first game of the match, 25-14.

The Vikings took the first two points of the second game, but Homestead kept the score close, tying it at 5-5. Senior team captain and libero Megan Coleman built the lead with two aces, bringing the score up to 15-7. Paly continued to dominate throughout the game after pulling ahead, winning with 25-13 victory.

“I think we were slow because we weren’t too focused at the warm up and that translated to the game,” Coleman said. “We started out pretty slow but we picked it up at the end.”

Homestead turned up the heat in the third game, serving two aces to take an early 5-6 lead, but the Mustangs could not hold on for long. Junior middle blocker Melanie Wade made a kill that put Paly ahead, 7-6. After more rallying, Homestead eventually tied the game at 13-13, but the Vikings found a rhythm and came up on top to win with a final score of 25-17.

“We didn’t play our best,” junior outside hitter Maddie Kuppe said. “It wasn’t really any thing in particular; we could have done every little thing just a little bit better. This wasn’t a bad game, it just could have been better.”

Junior outside hitter Caroline Martin believes the team can improve in areas such as blocking, not getting blocked on offense and overall communication, with the final one constituting a primary team goal.

Head coach David Winn predicts that the team will have to work hard to win against Los Gatos in the next league game.

“When we play on Tuesday with Los Gatos, we’re going to have to play a lot better defense and serve tougher,” head coach David Winn said. “We won’t be able to get into long, drawn out rallies with [Los Gatos]; they’re too good. It will be big test with two undefeated teams in our league.”

The Vikings’ next game is at 6:45 p.m. on Tuesday at Los Gatos.