In the second set of the Mountain View High girls volleyball match against conference leader Palo Alto High last week, the Spartans played with an intensity and resilience that flashed the young team’s potential for the rest of the season.
The host Spartans (16-4) scraped and clawed their way through a marathon 33-31 set via kills, blocks and skill to outlast Palo Alto (17-3) and tie the Sept. 27 match at 1-1 after making several adjustments to its passing game and defense.
“We were going kill for kill and toe for toe, and (it’s) a good demonstration of how both teams could be,” Mountain View head coach Dave Winn.
The Mountain View team served well and forced Palo Alto into several violations to keep the game within one. Several kills from Mallory Berent, the team’s junior opposite hitter, kept the Spartans within striking distance before an ace from libero Kendyll Winn won the set. However, first-place Palo Alto (17-3) responded with renewed purpose in the final two sets to seal a 3-1 victory. The sets finished 25-16, 31-33, 25-13 and 25-16, with Palo Alto jumping out to early leads in the two final sets.
“In the second, I think we won 33-31, and that was definitely a good moment, but it was hard to keep that energy throughout the whole match,” Berent said.
Berent finished with a team-leading 11 kills and has transitioned from role player to key starter this season with 168 total kills and 2.8 kills per serve. She credits her growth to leadership examples from last year’s team that finished second in the league, working with teammates and her club experience.
“I’ve definitely been working on my hits a lot during practice and just working on my timing with Emma (Zhang), our setter,” Berent said. “I feel like this week especially (it) has just come together.”
Winn praised Berent’s athletic and hitting ability on the right-hand side despite facing double teams at the net. Berent was the team’s hero in Mountain View’s Sept. 25 rivalry win over Los Altos, with the coach confident she can do more this season.
“She wants to be the big tiger on our team, and she is really coming along,” he said.
The Spartans have nine juniors on the team and were not the favorite going into the match. Palo Alto is undefeated in conference play and has four players 6 feet or over who made it difficult to set up attacks at the net. Winn credited the Vikings for tough serves but noted that the Spartans must improve passing and serving mistakes to compete in the league and be consistent.
“There is a lot of low-hanging fruit for us to fix,” he said.
Most of Winn’s work will be on improving the focus and execution needed to beat the top sides, with the coach talking to the team for 20 minutes after the match about the game and season.
“I think it was about attitude and energy tonight,” Berent said. “That’s a lot of what Coach Dave was talking about in the huddle after. That’s the thing we need to work on.”
Coach Winn wants to see the team continue to improve its 2-4 record in conference play, where the competition is tougher than the early-season tournaments it participated in.
“I wanna see how we respond in the second half (of the season),” he said. “Are we going to sharpen our ax by doing the things we need by being competitive?”
Mia Delgo had nine kills in the match. Kendyll Winn had a team-leading 16 digs, while Vanessa Pan had six. Alex Sakamoto had five aces and five digs. Zhang finished with 26 assists.
