On Tuesday evening at Malibu High School, the Dragons girls’ volleyball team faced off against the Sharks for the first round of CIF playoffs. Foothill was unable to pull out a victory, losing to Malibu with set scores of, 24-26, 25-23, 18-25, 24-26. With the loss, the Dragons’ season is officially over.

Coach Kris Gullatt felt “the girls played well enough to win,” but they failed to “convert on as many opportunities to win points” as they could have.

According to Gullatt, the Dragons “didn’t do what [they] needed to do and it’s hard to win games when that occurs.”

Even though the girls will be leaving the season empty-handed, Gullatt said, “I think the season as a whole was a massive success and I hope that is what the players take away.” He feels that there’s “a lot of growth that needed to take place in order for them to win some of those matches that [they] couldn’t come through on” this year.

However, Gullatt believed that the team experienced growth.

“We are much closer to being that team than we were in the beginning of the season and so for that reason, it was a very successful few months,” he said.

Many of the volleyball players will go on to play winter and spring sports or participate in club volleyball, but it is safe to assume that most players will return next year, except for the three seniors on the team.

Gullatt is “looking forward to even more maturity out of [the] returning varsity players” and “excited about [the] talent on the JV and freshmen teams.”

With much of their core set to return, the Dragons strive to compete in CIF playoffs next season.