The girls volleyball team lost in their CCS Open matchup against St. Francis, three sets to two, on Saturday at St. Francis.
The Lancers took a commanding first set, 25-12, and showed dominance on both sides of the ball. The lady Vikings battled back though as they took set two 25-18. From the third set on it became a back and forth match. St. Francis took set three 25-19 and then Paly forced a winner take all fifth set by winning set four, 25-23. Ultimately, set five ended in 16-5 Lancer victory and they move on to the next round of CCS Open playoffs.
With the loss the team had dropped down to the D-1 Norcal tournament and will not play until next week against an undecided opponent.
Even though the Vikings lost to St. Francis, they are confident about the growth their team has made this year and are looking to be competitive in D-1.
“I think our team has improved a lot over the month and we definitely had a tough battle against St. Francis,” Chelsea Fan (‘18) said. “Since we lost, we have a week off until the first round of Norcals. We will probably focus a lot on building up our team chemistry because we pulled up two freshmen from JV for CCS. We dropped down from open into D-1 for Norcals so we should be able to go further than we did last year.”
For this year’s team, focus will be key in their journey through the Norcal tournament and onto states.
“Staying focused and keeping in mind that we will be playing harder teams as we progress and our mental toughness will be tested,” Julianna Roth said. “We can’t go into any game thinking we are going to be given the game by the other team. We need to earn each individual point and each individual game. Take things one at a time.”
The lady vikes have a Norcal tournament game scheduled for Tuesday, November 14 against an opponent that remains undetermined.