Varsity girls volleyball defeated Los Altos 3-0, winning their first Hacienda League championship since 2018, in a home game Thursday, Oct.12.
With this being their last league game, both schools had large crowds cheering for their team. Cheers saying “side out” echoed through the gym, encouraging the players and keeping their team morale high. Walnut won the first set 25-12 with various blocks from middle blocker freshman Nylah Key.
“I think [we] did really well because we all played as a team,” outside hitter junior Caylin Caballero said. “In the first set when we were down, [but] we all came together and decided to play for each other instead of ourselves.”
Entering the second set, Walnut was down 0-6 and losing momentum. However, huddling up, they made substitutions and created a new game plan.
“[Coach Charles Tran] has really wise words when it comes to huddle talk. He knows exactly what to say that will get us back into the game,” Key said. “He shows us that we need to prove to everyone and to ourselves that we want to win.”
Walnut won the third set 25-23, securing themselves the win, but not without a challenge. Little mistakes added up with missed blocks and spikes into the net. The Mustangs were down for most of the set, but a series of aces towards the end gave Walnut the win.
“I knew that we could do it and we were just making careless mistakes,” outside hitter senior Emely Lopez said. “We all just came together and encouraged each other to take home the win.”
Ending the last league match with a win, the girls brought their league score to 9-1, winning them the Hacienda League championship. Unfortunately, they lost their first California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) game 1-3.
“Our season definitely went better than what we expected. We didn’t think much was gonna happen but we ended up winning the league,” libero sophomore Joya Shen said. “Winning the first few games gave us confidence and let us grow as a team. I think the reason we won was because we built trust and chemistry between each other.”
