The girls volleyball team beat the Paly Vikings in an intense 5-set game: 25-22, 13-25, 25-23, 22-25, 15-10 on Friday night.
“This [team] is our rival. We’ve lost the past three years, so we were really excited,” senior middle blocker Kayla Greenbaum said. “We just came off a pretty rough loss against [Archbishop] Mitty, so our main goals were to take what we learned from the Mitty game and use it.”
Paly started the game off with a quick kill, waking up the Bears for the next few plays. Freshman setter Calista Chou took charge, getting the Bears on the board with two aces in a row. Maintaining this momentum on offense, they managed to widen the gap on the scoreboard to a four-point lead, 17-13. Senior outside hitter Jocelyn Chang hit a powerful spike to secure the final point, ending the first set.
The second set kicked off with a tight rally of back-and-forth scoring. The Bears kept the energy strong, but soon fell short with multiple unforced errors, giving the Vikings an 11-10 lead. M-A called a timeout to reset, but was unable to close the gap. A quick ace from Paly and an offensive error by the Bears set the score at 17-10.
Junior outside hitter Sophie Marks got a crucial kill for the Bears to end a ten point Vikings’ run, bringing the score to 20-11 with Paly in the lead. However, M-A still wasn’t able to find their groove, and the set wrapped up with a kill from the Vikings, 25-13.
With the game tied at one set each, both teams were looking to pull ahead. After a back and forth start, Paly gained a 12-6 advantage, but an error on their end sparked five consecutive points for M-A. Paly took a timeout, but it wasn’t enough to halt the Bears’ momentum. After multiple powerful hits by Marks and Chang, the Vikings were unable to respond, and the set ended with M-A winning, 25-23.
The fourth set began neck and neck. The Bears looked strong, with kills by Marks and senior opposite hitter Bee Stone, but the Vikings were desperate to win this set. Greenbaum made key plays to help M-A maintain its momentum, keeping the score within two points for the majority of the set. Paly ultimately was able to get a series of blocks and kills, and they took the fourth set 25-22.
Starting off the fifth set, with both teams tired from the first four competitive sets, Paly was able to hold onto a small lead. Even so, M-A managed to bounce back with a kill from Chang, taking a 9-8 lead and sparking energy in the crowd. This newfound energy led to an M-A scoring run, and the Bears were ultimately able to pull away. The Vikings fought hard, but digs from Marks and senior libero Kylie Winters on the Bears’ defense allowed M-A to come out on top 15-10, ending the set with four consecutive points.
“Our team goal was to communicate, be aggressive on the court the whole time, and hype each other up. We all brought energy the entire game, and I think we really executed that,” Chou said.
“It was definitely a tough game. Paly’s a really great competitor, but I think we had a lot of good communication and we were pushing really hard in the times that mattered,” Chang said.
The Bears will face off against the Menlo Knights on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at home.
