The girl’s volleyball team led by Girls Volleyball Program Head Natalie Morgan is off to a rocky start in the season after two recent losses: a 3-2 loss to Aliso Niguel on Oct. 26 and a 3-0 loss to Liberty High School on Nov. 8. Their season came to an end following their second loss in the CIF playoffs.
This season, they concluded with a final record of 22 wins and 17 losses. Their elimination came following their consecutive losses to Aliso Niguel and Liberty High School. Last season, the team won CIF Division champions after a rapid series of wins. They completed a very successful season with a final record of 30 wins and 8 losses, making it all the way to the state final game before losing to Hillsdale High School. However, that hasn’t been the case this year.
Morgan said one main reason for the result of this season compared to to the last is that star senior players left the team after graduating last year. Now, the new seniors and juniors are stepping in the roles that led to their success last season.
“I think that the performance of last season really inspired our underclassmen to get better and grow this year, and our seniors helped guide the team, but now they’re gone,” Morgan said.
Morgan emphasized that the seniors had left large shoes to fill, and the new senior players found it difficult to take over their roles.
“Our seniors last year left some really big shoes to fill. It was difficult for our seniors this year to just learn their own leadership styles and lead with that joy.” Morgan said.
Despite the losses, Morgan said that she could see constant growth and improvement in the team. She remains optimistic that the team can win more games next season.
“Setting the standard of going to state every year is definitely what our President tried to build – that culture of winning long term – winning in November is something that we’re progressing to”, Morgan said. “We just faced a lot of outside adversity this year, and I’m really proud of the way the team battled together from here.”