By Marion Wood
Staff Writer
The South Pasadena High School girls’ volleyball team dominated in their first game against Arroyo High School on Friday, September 5 to kick off the 2014 season. The Tigers have been practicing tirelessly throughout the summer, and their hard work manifested in the victory. They won in 3 out of 5 games, with scores of 25-8, 25-6, and 25-10, respectively.
“We didn’t know anything about Arroyo- we’d never played them before,” senior captain Sophia Hathaway said. “It was also our first game, so we didn’t really have any expectations. We’re still working on learning our rotations and functioning as a team.”
The Knights struggled throughout the match, mostly with returning the Tigers’ serves. The serves were almost always in the court and often very difficult to pass to make a play. Sophomore Madison Hirano had an especially good service streak, with almost 10 aces in a row in the first game. If Arroyo did return the serve, they were swiftly defeated in the next rally.
“Most of the points they made were because of our own errors,” senior Rowan Leddy said.
The SPHS players made some mistakes on offense, occasionally hitting balls out of bounds, although the excellent performances by hitters Hathaway and sophomore Kate Kutzer made up for this. However, the Tigers were slightly lacking in passing and defense throughout the games. The players seemed less energetic and communicative in the third game than before, and Arroyo used the opportunity to pick up a few more points.
“We didn’t play as well or as clean as we should have, but the win was a good start to our upcoming season,” senior Irene Siao said. “We just need some more practice and game time.”
Overall, the team had a successful start to the pre-season with a strong win but with room to grow. The Tigers’ next game is against Polytechnic High School on September 9 at 3:30 p.m. in Pasadena.