By Hannah Lazarte
This Monday, the Lady Barons of Fountain Valley High School (FVHS) (15-15) faced off against the Edison Chargers (5-21) in a girls’ volleyball league match, but ultimately fell in all three sets.
The first match was lost on a score of 14-25, the second on a score of 24-26 and the third on a score of 22-25. The final score ended up being 0-3.
Before the game started, players gave pink roses to Gina Haugh, junior Zoe Haugh’s mom and a woman with breast cancer, to encourage her in her fight against breast cancer. Before changing into their jerseys, players wore pink shirts that said “Dig Pink,” with ‘dig’ being a reference to volleyball and ‘pink’ referencing the color for breast cancer awareness. All proceeds went toward the Orange Coast Breast Cancer Fund.
Key players of this match included senior Maylynn Pham and senior Dezi-Jae Butler. Pham, a big help in the game, especially dominated in the last set where she scored the ball three times. Butler assisted her teammates, setting the ball to them so they could score, along with keeping a good defense by blocking the ball.
The Chargers started the game by serving first. Their ball went out of bounds, causing the first point to go to Lady Barons. The score became 2-0 before Edison scored their first point, causing the score to become 2-1.
Junior Trisha Le and Butler blocked the ball together and scored for the Lady Barons. Following this point, Edison scored four consecutive points, causing the Lady Barons to timeout on a score of 6-10. Blocks by Le and senior Rebecca Staffieri brought the Lady Barons right on track. Staffieri showed her prowess, serving ace twice.
The Barons and Chargers went back and forth multiple times; however, Edison’s offense broke through the FVHS defense to score multiple points. The pattern continued for the rest of the set ending with a score of 14-25.
In the second set, Staffieri served again. The ball turned out to be out of bounds, and the Lady Barons failed to get the point. However, Pham secured the point two rounds later, changing the score to 1-2.
In the next round, Le served for FVHS but the Chargers ended up getting the point. Four rounds later, the Lady Barons were able to get back on their feet and score a point. Butler started to serve for FVHS, and the Lady Barons earned another point. On her next serve, she secured a server ace, chasing the score of the Chargers.
Scoring in the next two plays, the Lady Barons tied the scoreboard, bringing the score to 6-6. Pham scored once more while junior Avery Medvin traded points with the Chargers, but Medvin came out on top bringing the score to 9-7.
After four more plays, Haugh entered the game to serve. Although the Chargers ended up scoring the point from her serve, Staffieri blocked and regained possession of the ball for the Barons. The following plays saw the Chargers tie the score to 15-15.
The game came to a standstill with both teams fighting hard and trading points until Le and Butler scored a point for FVHS together with a block. Soon the scores tied again at 22-22, with both teams chasing the score of the other. Fountain Valley called their first timeout of the game on a score of 23-24. The set ended in a hard-fought match, ending on a score of 24-26.
In the third set, Edison started with possession, scoring the first point of the game on a serve. Le and Butler blocked a ball together in the second round but could not score a point for the Lady Barons. Pham scored a point in the play round, and a few rallies later, the score tied again at 5-5.
In the next two plays, FVHS scored a few points, starting with a violation from Edison. Staffieri scored, gaining another point for the Lady Barons. The teams continued to rally against each other, and the scores tied once again at 12-12. The Chargers scored three consecutive points before the Barons called a timeout on a score of 12-15.
Both teams chased each other’s scores, tying again at 18-18. The teams rallied, trying to tie up the score until the Chargers burst off and scored three consecutive times. With a score of 22-24, FVHS called their second timeout of the set. The Chargers scored the last point of the set ending with a score of 22-25.
Giving a shout-out to Pham and Carly Trcka, a defensive specialist, coach Rebecca Cheltenham believed the game went well.
“We had a slow start but going into the end of the first set, moving into set[s] two and three, we worked hard and we did our best,” Cheltenham said.
Although Pham had high hopes for the game, she wasn’t too disappointed about the end results and still viewed it as improvement, moving through the game step by step.
“There [were] moments where we had a fall in confidence but it’s just a matter of moving onto the next point,” Pham said. “I think my team did great . . . I saw a new team today and it brought me more courage throughout the game.”
Pham believes they should continue to work together as a team and become better in their serve receptions and them as a team.
“We’re just gonna work on going into the game confidently and believing in each other more,” Pham said. “We’ve been working on building each other up throughout the game.”
FVHS will play against Pacifica High School on Monday at 5 p.m. on the same day as Senior Night.
