Give them an A for effort.
Give them an A for effort.
And a P for plenty of promise as the season unfolds.
The Westminster High girls’ volleyball team had a tough opponent to open league with and the Lions lost to the Loara High Saxons 15-25, 25-20, 14-25, 22-25 last week on their home court.
Defending Golden West League champion Loara went undefeated last season and is currently ranked high in CIF. Westminster High came into Friday’s game with a preseason record of 4-3, whereas Loara was 5-2. Going against the No. 1 seeded Loara was a hard-fought match for the Lions as they too hoped to improve their previous season record of 4-19.
“The execution of both offense and defense was more aggressive than previous games against Bolsa Grande, Katella, and Saddleback to name a few,” coach Kirk Aradaza said. “Our bar is raised higher than before.”
The Lions are utilizing the middle players, Serena Palmer and Nhan Nguyen, to their fullest potential in every game while being led by captains Palmer and Mary Nguyen.
The Lions started slowly in the first set but managed to turn the game in the second set in their favor.
New to varsity, outside hitter Shae Dela Pina tallied five kills and setter Camille Maciel served up six assists in the second game.
With the Saxons winning the third game, the Lions centered the fourth game on middle blocker Palmer. Palmer totaled four blocks and two kills in the last round of the day before the Lions lost a close set, 22-25.
Despite coming close to winning the fourth game, the Lions are not devastated as they tried their best against the Saxons.
“This match was a fun, learning experience,” said Captain Serena Palmer. “We learned a lot from playing with a challenging team, and will use this experience to prepare us for the season.”
Westminster will host Segerstrom this week in its next league match.
Other contributing players include: Ngan Nguyen, Linda Duong, Luamy Aguilar, Diana Che, Kalynn Pham and Crystal Le.
