After a winless start to its league campaign, the Los Altos girls volleyball team upped the energy in a 3-2 thriller over rivals Mountain View Wednesday.
Los Altos (6-7) snapped a four-game losing streak and three losses to open Santa Clara Valley Athletic League De Anza Division play with a win Los Altos head coach Peter Kim hopes will be a springboard for the future.
“We need wins like this, and we’ve been so close against some really good teams, but I think even something like this right now is good,” Kim said. “I think it is a springboard to maybe run off a few wins in a row.”
The Eagles came out confident and aggressive on Mountain View’s home court against a Spartans (13-3) team that won its first nine games to open the season. Los Altos relied on the power of outside hitter Aviya Russo to deliver her 32 kills on the night and take sets two, three and five by scores of 25-17, 25-17 and 15-9, while Mountain View took the first and fourth set 25-20 and 25-23.
“We talked it over and decided we have to bring as much energy as like other teams,” Russo said. “It will help us with wins. Today, everybody brought it.”
Los Altos won thanks to strong starts and early energy throughout the sets, including 7-1 starts in the first and second sets, a 10-4 lead in the fourth and a 5-0 one in the fifth. Kim and the coaching staff have called on the team to be more aggressive on the floor and think less about errors to force opponents to make decisions.
“If we are going to lose, lose swinging,” Kim said.
During the fifth set, Los Altos withstood a 7-4 run from Mountain View thanks to its lead and went on a 3-0 run up 9-7 to eventually win 15-9.
“We’ve been talking about starting strong, especially in the fifth sets with such a short game,” Russo said. “It really helped us keep calm throughout the entire game.”
After falling into a 7-1 deficit in the first set, Mountain View went on an 8-0 run to down 9-5 to take a 13-10 lead and win the set. Los Altos did not make similar mistakes in the second set when it took another 7-1 lead and cruised to a 25-17 win, using the momentum to take the third set. Mountain View won the fourth set thanks to an 8-0 run down 16-13 to make it 21-16, despite nine kills from Russo.
Kim moved Russo around the floor more often than in previous games to try and create uncertainty about who Los Altos would set for, with players like middle blocker Ella McFarlane moving to outside hitter at times.
“We needed to balance out our lineup as well as our offense because everybody is just keying in on her,” Kim said of Russo. “We need another person to take the pressure off of her.”
McFarlane finished with eight kills, freshman Thais Ross nine and Ruby Border with seven. Russo had six aces, and Ross led the team with three total blocks. Ana Heath had a team-leading 20 digs for the Eagles. The win for Los Altos snapped a four-game losing streak, with two of the last four losses coming in the fifth set against Sacred Heart Prep and Monta Vista.
“We’ve played fifth sets against really good teams, and we’ve lost the fifth set, and today I’m glad they came out and won the fifth set,” Kim said.
