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Girls’ varsity volleyball starts season with tournament and matches

The girls’ varsity volleyball team kicked off the season with a two day tournament on September 6 and 7 at West Hills High School in Santee. They played against many schools, including Rancho Bernardo, La Jolla Country Day, and San Marcos.

The team won four games and lost three games in the tournament, which makes Junior Leanne Gehrke’s goal seem possible.

“[I want] to beat last years’ record, which is a bit embarrassing,” Gehrke said. “Also, [I want to] just bond more with the team and get to know our teammates better.”

Senior Alyssa McClintick regards the West Hills tournament as a beneficial experience.

“We played pretty well the first day when we were just getting used to playing with each other,” McClintick said. “We’ve never really played together so it was like the first time actually playing as a team. It was a two day tournament. On second day, we played really well together, got the kinks out and tried to make everything work. We lost every game the first day, but then won every game the second day, and we got first in the consolation brackets.”

In this tournament, the team was faced with some difficulties at first.

“I think in the beginning it was the most challenging,” McClintick said. “We’ve done drills and stuff but it was the first time we actually played a game. We just had so many new people that have never played on the team before. Having everyone come together and work on connections with hitters and setters [were] really difficult.”

On November 11, the team played against Valhalla High School, and won.

“We won 3 out of 5 games,” Gehrke said. “The best part was working through the errors and mishaps and coming back from behind to win. It was really fun and intense, and a great team effort.”

Based on these experiences, McClintick has some objectives for the season.

“Goals would definitely be trying to work and come together as a team, since we have a lot of new people this year,” McClintick said. “The three of our new freshmen all played really well, especially for their first year on varsity. We have a really young team, so I think just playing together and working out the kinks so we can all play together [well] as a team.”

An important match is coming up on October 31 for the girls’ volleyball team.

“I’m looking most forward to the home game against Westview,” McClintick said. “Everyone needs to go to that one.”