Senior Jenna Everson reaches over Newport Harbor’s block to get a kill. Photo by Laura Le.By Suzane Jlelati & Lindsey Nguyen, Staff Writers
In the final game of the season, girls’ volleyball fell short on their senior night against Newport Harbor by a score of 0-3.
“We knew it was going to be a rough season because we had a lot of seniors graduate last year and now we have tough opponents across the board in our league. Every match we were able to achieve all of our little goals: We took sets from almost every team in our league and we beat Marina in three but Newport Harbor, unfortunately, was the only opponent we couldn’t get a set from,” said Coach Becca Millard.
The first set started with cheers from the crowd as sophomore Serena Hom serves the first ball. However, the first point went to Newport Harbor when Fountain Valley shanked their downball. Multiple points were scored back and forth with intense rallies. Many saves and digs from seniors Kennedy Hoenig and Mia Lara and sophomores Hom and Phoebe Minch with a hit downline. Hits from seniors Alex Brooks and Lara and blocks from seniors Jenna Everson and Lexie Geltman showed their determination but the set ended with a close score of 20-25.
“Real proud of the seniors. They’re going through a lot as high school students, our program is not easy, practices are tough and there’s a standard required of them and I’m really, really proud of them being able to be student athletes, as well as finishing strong in their senior year and being a dominant force on the court,” said Coach Millard.
In the second set, Newport Harbor scored the first five points of the game and the crowd attempted to cheer on the girls to shake it off. Senior Kay Nguyen took a swing and killed the ball and began an intense rally to get the Lady Barons another point. Although Fountain Valley tried to make up for the run they let Newport Harbor have, they could not do so. Not only was execution not on the girls’ side, but neither were the referee’s as they missed multiple errors leaving spectators, players, and coaches aggravated. Even with great runs with seniors Brooks and Everson alongside Minch, the Barons lost the second set by a score of 18-25.
In the final set, the girls fell behind in points in the beginning but maintained their composure throughout the set. Senior Wendy Doran made a huge spike that got the crowd on their feet, excited for the next points that were to come. The girls scored a few more points and eventually made their comeback at 10-9. Good saves were made by multiple players and successful blocks were made by seniors Kay Nguyen and Jenna Everson. Minch made a strong spike that bounced straight off a Newport player and flew across the gym, resulting in loud cheers from the crowd and team. But, a final dumpshot from Newport gave them the win of the night at 17-25.
“[Our team] did really good, we had high energy the entire game, we never had a low moment. Even when we lost a few points, we came together and tried our hardest. Because it was senior night, we all wanted to go out with a bang for our last game and even though we lost, we still showed what we could do,” said Senior captain Doran.
