Senior Annya Dahmani watches as sophomore Jewel Turner spikes the ball over the net to the Cristo Rey High School Saints. Country Day's varsity girls defeated the Saints, 3-0, on Sept. 8.

Varsity girls triumph over Cristo Rey Saints

Jacqueline Chao
Senior Annya Dahmani watches as sophomore Jewel Turner spikes the ball over the net to the Cristo Rey High School Saints. Country Day’s varsity girls defeated the Saints, 3-0, on Sept. 8.

The varsity volleyball team dominated its first league game of the season on Sept. 8, when the girls defeated Cristo Rey High School, 3-0, at home.

The energetic team was able to get a huge lead in the first set, crushing the Saints, 25-7.

The second and third sets went very similarly, with the Cavs’ taking the second, 25-11, and ending the game in the third, 25-14.

According to junior Heidi Johnson, it was an easy win.

“It wasn’t as difficult (as) the preseason games, which are meant to be challenging. But that can be dangerous because we sometimes get complacent and don’t try as much,” Johnson said.

“In this game, though, we kept our energy and effort up and minimized our errors.”

Junior Tori Van Vleck agreed.

“We did a great job of keeping up our energy even though we were so far ahead,” Van Vleck said.

The team’s large lead allowed them to focus on many aspects of the game, according to senior Yasmin Gupta.  

“We were able to pick up a lot of weird balls and first or second balls over (the net),” Gupta said.

She also said that everyone got a good amount of playing time.

Senior Lea Gorny agreed.

“This game was not one of our most competitive (games), so we didn’t really make many errors,” Gorny said.

“It was just a chance to work on passing and communication,”

Gorny also said that the team was very well prepared for the game.

“We are coming together as a team (and) communicating well,” Gorny said.

“Many times we were able to go on serving streaks where we could just rack up points.”

According to Johnson, the team could have used the game to practice and expand their skills even more.

We hit quite a bit (but) could’ve worked on tipping or other strategic moves,” Johnson said.

“We didn’t always need to spike (the ball) at full force.”

The Saints got most of their points from the Cavs’ errors, including serves and hits into the net, which could have been avoided.

The Cavs next game is on Monday, Sept. 11, against Foresthill High School at home at 6 p.m.

By Anna Frankel

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