On Nov. 11, the Skyline Trojans faced the West Valley Vikings on home turf in a women’s volleyball game. Unfortunately, Skyline lost to West Valley with a score of 1 – 3, but the team made
great efforts to hustle throughout the game.

“They’re definitely a competitive team to play against,” Skyline’s setter, Rachel Lopez said. “We played against them a month ago and we went to five. It was a heart-breaking loss but it was still very competitive. They’re a very scrappy team, so it was good for us defensively to get the ball up.”

The first set ended with a score of West Valley 25 and Skyline 20. The second ended 25 – 23. Throughout the entire game, Skyline was very vocal and made good defensive hustle.

After the timeout in the third set, both teams amped up their aggression and the score came very close. The score was 25 Skyline and 24 West Valley. Since a team has to win by two points, the set continued and Skyline pushed to 26 points, beating West Valley in this set.

In the fourth set, Skyline continued to show aggression and play good defense. Unfortunately the set ended with a loss for Skyline with a score of 17 Skyline – 25 West Valley. This was the final set in the game, making West Valley the winning team.

“We played okay,” Skyline libbero Marlene Alcantara said. “We could have done better. The last time we played them we played to five sets and we lost by three. Our offense was slow this game and our serve receive was okay. Our hitters weren’t doing as well but our players Lacey and Laura, they’re both freshman, they really stepped up this game and I’m really proud of them.”

Head Coach Rayannah Salahuddin made a case that the team is not offense oriented.

“We are a defense oriented team,” she said. “We don’t have a lot of the height that a lot of the teams have, some kids – they’re learning in positions, but one strength we have is defense. Defensive players think a lot…They think when they’re hitting and some of their hits don’t end up being competitive. They struggle with that because they don’t like to make errors because they’re defensively oriented, so they take that same mind set in hitting and they need to understand that you’re going to make a couple errors and that’s okay.”

While the team has one more game of the season, this was the last one at home. Because of this, the team celebrated sophomore night, where the team’s sophomores were recognized and congratulated on their season.

“As a sophomore you really have to become a leader, keep the team together, keep everyone’s energy up, and take responsibility for everything on the court,” Skyline opposite Michelle Lam said. ”Sophomore night is celebrating our sophomores; this is our last year playing and our last home game.”

Sophomores were recognized with gifts and flowers on the court prior to the game beginning. The team has three sophomores who are all transferring. The team has high academic standards and the three sophomores are leaving with a combined GPA of 3.9.

“This is a learning year for us,” coach Salahuddin said. “Our freshmen are learning every day. Our sophomores are leaving…as a coach I have to be proud.”