Following a loss to Bishop Alemany in the season opener on Tuesday, the Valencia girls’ volleyball team bounced back with a win on Thursday on the road over Trinity Classical Academy.
The Vikings defeated the Knights in four sets, 16-25, 25-17, 25-16, 25-15, and recorded their first win of the new season.
“It feels good. I feel like we finally got into a rhythm,” said head coach Kristin Dolan. “We got some nerves out and now we’re playing more like a team.”
After the Vikings (1-1) dropped the first game of the season on the road to Bishop Alemany, Dolan said she wanted to fix the mistakes quickly and was eager to get onto the court and face the Knights (0-2).
With the win now under their belt, Dolan said she saw her players’ confidence and can’t wait to see more of it during the year.
“It was definitely good for our confidence to be able to come out with a win,” Dolan said. “And to even have to battle and deal with a little bit of adversity. We’re bringing up all the confidence and heading in the right direction.”
In the first set, the Knights jumped to an early 12-8 lead, which prompted a timeout from Dolan to get her team organized.
Despite the break, the Knights secured the first-set win thanks to a 13-8 scoring run.
But in the following sets, the Vikings’ nerves settled down and capitalized off Trinity’s mistakes.
“Get on the court and do your job,” Dolan said on what she told the team in between sets. “It was just about putting them back into their comfort zone … but definitely serving, passing and setting was our focus.”
Throughout the game, Dolan relied on the likes of senior outside hitter Kayla Rust, junior setter Faith Hilton, and junior middle blocker Nyla Willstead to anchor the defense and set options up on offense.
With the attacks of Trinity’s Katrina Larsen and Sonia Chavez, Dolan said her Vikings’ defense stepped up big and led to the offense playing cohesively.
“With those three, and Mai’ana Untalan, our libero, those four working together do what it takes to win,” Dolan said. “They’re big blockers and they see the whole game and anchor the defense. As long asthey’re doing their jobs and they’re feeling confident about themselves, it kind of works pretty well together.”
The Vikings completed the overall victory with a fourth-set win over Trinity after the Knights committed an offensive mistake for the final game point.
The Knights begin the season 0-2 and will look to bounce back following the weekend on Monday on the road in a matchup against the Desert Christian Knights with the first serve scheduled for 5 p.m.
As for Valencia, Dolan is eager to watch back on the film and continue the preseason portion of the Vikings’ schedule as she looks to enter the league part of the year with the most confidence.
“We’re going to move forward with what worked today, and hopefully that continues to work and just continues to build,” Dolan said. “I just want the thing that works to continue to get better and better, and I hope that that’s where their mind is, too. We got two and a half weeks until league starts, and we need to be on our A game when that happens.”
The Vikings play again on Tuesday at Santa Barbara High School in a matchup against the Dons with first serve set for 6 p.m.
