Outside Hitters Becca Raffel and Maddie Kuppe block a shot from St. Francis. The Palo Alto High School volleyball team (16-3, 2-0) lost 3-2 to the Saint Francis Lancers (12-2) on Sept. 26.

– Michael Berry

The Palo Alto High School volleyball team (16-3, 2-0) lost 3-2 to the Saint Francis Lancers (12-2) last night in an intense, non-league game.

The Lancers captured the first two games with strong defense, fending off the Vikings, 25-20, in game one and narrowly winning the second game, 28-26.

After dropping two games, the Vikes staged an impressive comeback, winning games three and four decisively, 25-19 and 25-22, respectively, thanks to some powerful kills from seniors Melanie Wade and Maddie Kuppe.

However, the Vikings lost game five after a St. Francis rally. Strong blocking kept the Vikings’ points and scoring opportunities low, and the final game resulted in a 15-8 victory for St. Francis.

“Saint Francis is a very solid team,” senior middle blocker Jackie Koenig said. “They just out-defended us.”

“We weren’t exactly in our prime ‘beastmode,’ ” senior outside hitter Maddie Kuppe said. “We did a great job coming back but in the end we just couldn’t finish.”

The Vikings will play their next league game against Los Gatos High School (11-4, 2-0) on Thursday, Sept. 29.