The girls volleyball team lost to the Palo Alto Vikings in a five-set thriller—25-20, 13-25, 24-26, 25-21, and 14-16—for the first round of CCS playoffs on Saturday afternoon.
The Bears started off the first set very strong, setting the morale high. Multiple kills from senior Daniela Eline and junior Kayla Greenbaum helped them build an early 7-3 lead.
Refusing to let up, their lead remained with great offense from seniors Sienna Morales and Sarah Littlefield. This forced many errors on the Vikings’ end, which ultimately concluded the set 25-20.
Going into the second set, the Bears struggled offensively but managed to stay in the game with great defensive plays from seniors Meki Maile and Kiela King. Despite these efforts, the Vikings’ offense proved to be too powerful, putting the Bears in a hefty deficit of 15-9. Trouble in serve receive worsened the scoreline further, allowing Paly to dominate the set 25-13.
The Bears hoped to turn the game around in the third set, and did exactly that. Morales continued to be a lethal offensive weapon which paved the way for a strong 10-8 start.
However, this was short-lived due to difficult serves from the Vikings that killed momentum, and the Bears found themselves losing 19-13.
“They had some amazing servers that did a good job putting pressure on us from the service line,” King said.
The Bears were relentless and refused to throw in the towel. Rallying together, the deficit was slowly closed with kills from junior Ruby Stone and Morales. On top of this, a massive block from Littlefield revived the Bears’ energy, tying the game at 23-23. Unfortunately, they were unable to clench the set, and two consecutive Paly kills ended it at 26-24.
Kicking off the fourth set, both teams were neck and neck. Impressive sets from Maile allowed Morales and Eline to accumulate kill after kill, helping the Bears break away and build a lead of 15-11. Two incredible stuff blocks from Littlefield and Greenbaum paired with a clever setter dump by senior Ava Chansari gave the Bears the energy they needed to finish the set, winning 25-21.
Pressures were high for the fifth set, as whoever took this would win the entire game.
Formidable offense on the Bears’ end forced many errors from the Vikings and put the score at 5-4. After some more intense back-and-forth play, Eline helped the Bears build a lead of 13-11.
Once again, the Vikings bounced back with blocks and kills of their own, which proved to be too much for the Bears to match. After valiant effort on both sides, the game ended 16-14 for the Vikings.
“I think we played our hearts out that game. It was a really tight match, and I’m very proud of how we did as a team, especially with communicating and being aggressive on offense,” King said.
“It was a great season overall. We won league [play] and got to play in open, which was really good. I’m definitely going to miss the girls and all the great memories we made together,” Eline said.
