Birmingham’s Girls’ Volleyball Team started off strong by winning the first two preseason matches against Kennedy. The first match took place on Sep. 16 and the final score was 3-0 and on Sep. 21, the team had a close match that ended in a 3-2 victory. Since then, the team has been struggling. They have lost nearly every match by a score of 0-3 since their strong start. Some schools they have played against are: El Camino, Taft, Chatsworth, and Granada Hills. The only exception to this score was when they went against Cleveland and won a game, making it a 3-1 loss.

Jessie Villarrean (11) stated that their mindset for a match is, “We think it’s a team that we can beat and we don’t take it as seriously as we should,” which explains the less than stellar scores. She said that the team tends to get ahead of themselves and they are really working on correcting their mindset. Nicole Derksen (12), a transfer student, countered that the reason the team has been doing so poorly is because their communication has slipped. “Pre-season was a lot easier than the actual season,” she disclosed.

The team kept with this pattern on Oct. 19, when they went against El Camino and lost 3-0. Since they had been busy preparing for the homecoming parade, the majority of the team didn’t focus on the game. Even though volleyball didn’t prepare as well as they could for the game, Derksen said, “We know we can beat the other schools. We just have to try harder and work on communication.”

Volleyball has a strong emphasis on teamwork. Villarrean said that the team will always be together through thick and thin. “We’re always trying to help each other–correcting and congratulating each other all the time.” Derksen wanted to include that “I hope that we win a couple of the last games and that even when we’re losing were happy and having fun. I hope after the season we are still friends.” Girls’ volleyball has the potential to become a great team with a bit of focus and hard work.