On Oct. 15, the AWHS JV girls volleyball team headed into their final match of the season. They had faith they could stay competitive against Marin Catholic High School, the leaders of the MCAL volleyball league. The Falcons had a record of 4-3 before their match, and had hopes to secure one more “W” to close out the year. 

AWHS JV head coach Greg Jones knew that winning in this matchup would not be easy. However, he also knew what would need to happen in order to have a favorable outcome. 

“We’re going to have to play really well,” Jones said. “We’re going to have to serve pretty well, like we served against Redwood. The other key thing for us is to block well because they have some good hitters.” 

Right side hitter, sophomore Anaya Sears, shared a similar outlook to Jones prior to the match. 

“It’s gonna be a tough game, but with the right energy, we could have a successful outcome,” Anaya said.

By the time the match kicked off, the visiting student section of the Marin Catholic gym was packed, and the fan energy was high. Set one started with Marin Catholic taking a decisive lead, due to a few defensive errors from the Falcons. After losing five points, the Falcons were able to side out with a sneaky setter dump from Kaila Service. 

After going back and forth for a few points, Marin Catholic got the ball rolling again by capitalizing on the Falcons’ errors and maintaining a wide score gap. By the end of the set, the Marin Catholic Wildcats had taken a dominant lead of 18 points. AWHS couldn’t seem to stop the momentum Marin Catholic had built, losing the first set 25-7.

After their less-than-ideal first set performance, the Falcons sought success in the next match. The second set started out with an even longer scoring run from the Wildcats, this time the lead coming from strong hitting on the outside and right side. AWHS managed to put up some blocks and eliminate some of their serve receive errors, but even after these improvements from AWHS, Marin Catholic followed suit. 

The energy of both teams was noticeably different towards the end of the second set, as the game became much more competitive. In the end, the Wildcats’ win was just as dominant as in the first set. The second set finished 25-11, marking the end of the game and the season for both teams.

“At the end of the game, we brought our energy up and didn’t give up, but we could have tried harder in the beginning,” Kaila said.

Jones also thought there was a noticeable difference in their second set performance, compared to set one. 

“We served really well, and we had some much better passing, so we were in more points and made them make some mistakes,” Jones said. 

The Falcons didn’t let the loss get to them, as they closed their season with a solid record of four wins and four losses.