Beach volleyball is an increasingly popular sport, particularly for beach towns such as Ventura, California, and many schools have began to adopt the game as one of their official sports. For Foothill Technology High School (Foothill Tech), this is the first year that their girls beach volleyball team is recognized in CIF play. On April 27, the team took on Oak Park High School (Oak Park) during their first CIF match in a home game, when they played in round one of the statewide competition.

On line one Ashlyn Mullin ‘24 and Loraine Corona ’23 played in a nail biting match, faltering in the first half then proceeding to make a comeback, however a little too late as Oak Park took the first set 20-22. In the second set the team was not able to make a comeback and ended up losing 12-22, earning Oak Park one point.

Morgan Houston ‘25 and Malia Gray’s ‘24 matches went similarly, losing the first set 20-22 and  the second 18-22. 

Oak Park was in the lead with 2 points, Foothill Tech. responded in full force with Sara Stoney ‘26 and Lilac Reyes ‘26 crushing their opponents 21-8 in the first set. However in the second the team dropped the set 17-21, but pulled through in the third 15-11 and earned the first point for the Dragons.

Rylie Hannah ’26 and Kaili Garret ’24 easily took out their opponents, the first set ending at 21-18 and kept up the same energy in the second where they breezed by 21-13.

Now tied, the pressure was on for Emily Drucker ’26 and Jaelisa Lozano ’26  who took the first set 21-13 and won the second 21-15, earning the Dragons the victory 3-2. The team celebrated their victory and prepared to play again on May 1 in the second round of CIF play.

The following week the team was ready to compete against St. Margaret’s High School (St. Margaret’s) from San Juan Capistrano, CA who traveled to play on Foothill Tech’s home court. The team is ranked 25th in California and has remained undefeated in league play. 

Foothill Tech was determined to overcome the competition and when asked about her mindset entering the second round of CIF Houston stated, “This was our first time in CIF so we really wanted to do well even though we were facing a tough team”

Both lines one and two lost, Corona and Mullin fought desperately on line one, the first set 17-21 and the second came mere points from victory at 19-21. On line two one Houston and Gray kept up good support of one and other, but several points without communication resulted in both the first and second set ending at 14-21. 

As for line three, Stoney and Reyes took the first set 21-13 but then fell in the second 20-22. In the third and final set they barely slipped in 12-15.

However, on line four Garret and Hannah pulled through for the team and took the first set in a very close game 23-21. They then proceeded to take the second 21-16, earning the team their first point.

Drucker and Lozano fought hard in the final game of the season but fell in the first set 11-21 and 13-21 in the second, securing the teams loss 1-4.

Although this season may be over, the team had an overwhelmingly positive league record at 3-1 and 8-7 overall. Coach Lynz Mullaney stated that, “I can’t wait to see the growth and development of our team in the seasons to come,” and the team is already anticipating their future competitions.