Girls’ volleyball took a heartbreaking loss in their 1st round of CIF playoffs in a 0-3 match against Viewpoint High School. Oct. 24 was a mournful loss for the Dragons, considering that this was the last game for their four seniors( 21-25, 20-25, 17-25). Viewpoint will now continue on into the 2nd round of the CIF playoffs and face off against Saddleback Valley Christian.

This time last year, the Viewpoint Patriots were matched up against the Dragons and won in 3 games at last year’s first-round CIF game as well. The Dragons hoped to exact revenge on the team that ended their season in the previous year, but alas they once again closed the door on the Dragons’ 2019 girls’ volleyball season, which finished with a record of 8-7.

This was an emotional game for the four seniors who ended their high school careers with this match: Karina Ariniello ‘20, Lillian Li ’20, Nicole Najera ’20 and Ashley Pazen ‘20. Ariniello described how special and unique this year’s team was, considering normally there’s a team hierarchy where “the seniors are top dog,” and that they “rule over the younger girls,” but this team was different because they were all working together and they “all really liked each other.”

Maliah Juker ‘22, agreed with this stance saying “the seniors this year, they were definitely super inspiring” and saying that as of now, they have a “really tight group of girls.” Juker also pointed out that they “tried to do whatever we could to get them [the seniors] to go to playoffs and go farther in the season” but unfortunately, it was not in the cards for the Dragons this year.

The sophomores and juniors on the team are awaiting the replacement of the team’s libero for next season but are fired up to keep training and improving their game.