Brigette Dufau
Staff Writer
Girls varsity volleyball faced Palos Verdes High School in a bay league match at home on September 14th. The Mustangs beat the Sea Kings 3-1 in a competitive match improving to a 15-1 overall record.
According to Fans from Costa and Palos Verdes, both turned out to cheer on their teams while waving signs and screaming. Both on and off the court, their enthusiasm heightened the energy and the plays started connecting.
“It was a really fun and competitive game” Outside hitter, sophomore Audrey Flanagan said, “They were definitely a good team and very determined but we stuck together and played our game which helped us come out on top with a win.”
The first set began with Palos Verdes coming out the gate defeating the Mustangs in the opening set, 22-25. The team discussed their strategy, and resolved their difficulties to push through and take the next to sets.
“I would say we just didn’t go into the set with our best effort”, according to sophomore middle blocker Mia Miller, we should’ve started with more fire and energy. “We talked as a team after that set and we all agreed on pushing ourselves and laying it all out in the court”.
The third set got on to a great start for the Mustangs from the help of senior setter Charlie Fuerbringer’s defensive efforts, but the Sea Kings were slowly able to catch up. Senior setter Hayden Lin and Senior middle blocker Bryn Shankle were able to block multiple swings, allowing the Mustangs to gain a bigger lead. The set resulted in a close win of 27-25 by the mustangs.
“After the first set we all came together as a team and really stuck together in order to win moving forward”. Senior libero/DS Alyssa Bauer said, “We all love each other and are always willing to do anything to help the team no matter what in order to achieve success”
The fourth set came down to final points.The Mustangs worked through some minor unforced errors, ironing out their plays for the rest of the game. Palos Verdes stayed resilient. They gave the Mustangs a competitive fight and stayed neck and neck, Costa kept control and won, 25-17.
“We talked about how we did a good job of fighting through the game even though we weren’t playing as well as we knew we could” According to Senior middle back Rachel Moglia, “We just needed to keep working hard in practice so games like those would start to feel easier ”
Despite the setback in the first set the Mustangs came out with a fantastic win. The team has been ranked first nationwide by maxpreps.
“I think we will continue to keep doing well because our team is motivated to win and works hard”, Sophomore setter Milly Mcgee states, “but also has fun and we are all really close so I think that will help us”.
The Mustangs will be competing against Santa Monica at 3:30 on Tuesday September 19th at home for their next bay league match.
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