The Palo Alto High School girls’ volleyball team is preparing for the 2014 season with their new coach, Daniele Desiderio.

After losing their opportunity to make it to State Championship last year after losing to Granite Bay in the quarterfinals of the Norcal tournament. Granite Bay went on to win the CIF State Championship.

Paly volleyball lost four key seniors, but the team is staying positive and believes that team chemistry will play in their favor this year.

“It’s early in the season to jump to conclusions but we have really good chemistry both on and off the court and I definitely think that that will play to our advantage,” Katie Passarello (’17) said.

The Lady Vikes have a new coach that has long been involved in the sport. Desiderio has more than twenty years of volleyball experience as a player and began playing in the Italian National League at the age of 16.

“The team is the biggest its ever been in the past so as our coach likes to say, we are breaking records already,” Clara Chiu (’16) said.

The Lady Vikes will face Leland High School on Sept. 9 at 6:30 p.m. for their first league game of the season.