The Paly (20-4, 9-1) volleyball team continued their near perfect league season as they triumphed over the Mountain View Spartans (12-12, 4-6).
Although the Spartans began the set with a slight lead of 2-1, the Lady Vikes quickly retaliated and picked up their momentum, until they were leading 12-7 at the time of the first time out.
A series of blocks by Lauren Kerr (’14) and three kills by Becca Raffel (’14) led the team to a 21-14 lead. In the final points of the set, captain Sophia Bono (’13) faked a set and hit the ball to the opposite side of the net to round the set off for Paly 25-17.
At the beginning of the second set, the Lady Vikes seemed to be getting into their natural swing. After being up 8-4, the Lady Vikes had a five point run due to their serve-receive and more kills from Raffel and captain Shelby Knowles (’13).
However, the Spartans started to make their comeback after the Vikings’ five point run and soon tied up the set at 16-16. After back and forth points the two teams, remained tied at 19-19, 20-20, and 22-22.
“Passing was kind of a struggle, but [the team] pulled it out, so thats good,” Jade Schoenberger (’15) said.
The Vikings ended up taking the set 25-23, after a spike by Lauren Kerr (’14).
“It comes back to the serve and pass game, we were on in the first set and third set, we got big leads. But in the second set they started to ace us and we started to lose some confidence, girls were watching the ball fall,” coach Dave Winn said. “When we face good serving teams, we can’t afford to lose three, or four, or five points in a row.”
Paly began their third set strong and at the time of the first time out in the set, the Lady Vikes were dominating 8-2. The Spartans began to catch up with the Vikings after a couple out-of-bounds balls, until the score was 11-9.
Digs, kills, and improved serve-receive from Raffel and Keri Gee (’14) allowed Paly to finish off the set with a 25-19 win, winning them their ninth league match.
Overall, Winn was very pleased with the girls’ performance tonight.
“The girls played a really solid match,” Winn said.
The Lady Vikes will host Lynbrook at 6:45 p.m. on Tuesday, October 23.
