The Wilcox Chargers varsity volleyball squad nearly pulled off a miracle in the first set on Thursday afternoon. Taking on Castilleja, an all-girls private school in Palo Alto traditionally known for its strong volleyball program, the underdog Chargers had the Gators at set point, 24-23, one point away from stealing a first set, one in which they once trailed 20-12.
It was a roller coaster first set from the jump. Wilcox opened up a 5-0 lead on the strength of quality serving from junior Isha Bisht. Once Castilleja finally earned a side out, though, the Gators scored 20 of the next 27 points and looked like they would run away with the opening set.
In a good learning lesson that momentum can change in a flash, Wilcox more than got back into the set with Castilleja on a service run from junior Dorma Yang. Outside hitter Hanaka Stone provided much of the offense with a powerful right-hand despite being under the weather coming into the match.
When Yang’s service run ended, the two teams were tied at 24-24 and would battle all the way until a 29-27 set win for the Gators.
“It’s pretty hard,” acknowledged Bisht on regrouping after such a tough opening-set loss. “We always say that playing a tougher team brings up our level of play and getting so close, but losing obviously brought our morale down.”
“We were really confident at the beginning, but then we got too comfortable,” admitted Stone on the back-and-forth opening set. “With Isha’s serves getting a lot of points, and we were like, ‘Oh we can stop working,’ and then once we stopped, they started to come back with big hits and we didn’t keep up. At the end, we started trying to put in the work again, but we have to consistently work on keeping the energy instead of being up and down.”
Not only was Stone still suffering from the effects of a flu bug, but the Chargers were without one of their key starters, Emma Gaba, who suffered an ankle injury just a day prior, in Wednesday’s match.
“I had to make a lot of changes and I lost one of my best players yesterday,” responded Head Coach April Lujan when asked about the tough first set ending and trying to regroup for the second set. “She sprained her ankle, so to get the loudest person, the most consistent person off the floor and having to keep the girls motivated was really tough. And my outside hitter Hanako is dealing with the stomach flu.”
Unfortunately for Wilcox fans, their team would fall to the Gators in straight sets. The loss (29-27, 25-14, 25-16) drops Wilcox to 5-6 overall, but the Chargers will look to get healthy next week when they take on two league opponents in Santa Clara and Cupertino.
The Chargers take on their cross-city rival Santa Clara Bruins on Monday, Sept. 16, and, two days later, on Wednesday, will take on the Cupertino Pioneers.
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