The Palo Alto High School Volleyball Team took care of business Tuesday night with an impressive win over the Monta Matadors. The Vikings executed well on both offense and defense, not allowing Monta Vista to win a single match.

The Vikings had a very shaky start to the game, but were able to bounce back thanks in part to kills by Lauren Kerr (’14) and Jade Schoenberger (’15). After trading points in the first set, the Viking were able to pull it out, 25-22.

“In the first set, we kinda just went with the flow.” Schoenberger said. “We didn’t show how we normally perform.”

After falling behind 6-4 in the second set, the Vikings finally hit their stride, outscoring the Matadors 21-6 the rest of the set and winning 25-12. This time, the set was dominated by Becca Raffel (‘14), who had a handful of spikes and kills.

The Vikings momentum never relinquished from that point on, as the third set was even more impressive than the first. Kills from Anna Dukovic (‘15) and Jade Schoenberger (‘15)  helped seal the deal as the Vikings went on to win the third set, 25-10.

“I think we were much more energetic this game than our last game.” Dukovic said. “We came out much stronger and kept our energy up the entire game.”

Head Coach David Winn also had some very encouraging takeaways from today’s game.

“We definitely won the battle of the net.” Winn said. “When we got our passing going, it was going to be pretty hard for Monta Vista to stay with us. Steady passing, Error free hitting, that was the key.”

Regardless of the victory, the Vikings still have areas where they would like to improve on.

“I think we need to improve our defense a little more.” Said Dukovic. “We need to get better at picking up hits as well.”

The Vikings head back to practice tomorrow, in preparation for Thursday’s big game against Los Altos.

“We have a big game next week.” Winn said. “Los Altos is at the top of our league. They are going to put up way more pressure on us. We have to work really hard in practice and give it our best.”