Girls volleyball sweeps again against Lawndale

On Oct.11, fans gathered to watch Samo take on their newest opponent: Lawndale High School. By the end, Lawndale went home disappointed and Samo came out with another home win, ending the game with a crushing score of 25-7.The first set alone gave fans in the crowd an idea of what the rest of the game would be like: a game in which the Samo thrived. From the first few seconds, the Lawndale players were running into each other trying to reach the ball, but would fail to do so. “We dominated them,” Elizabeth Gross (’19) said. “Our energy is great. The team gets along well and everyone supports one another. I still think we can work on having a consistent amount of energy with every team we play.”During the first set, Gross helped the team gain a solid lead along with the help of other players, including Isabelle Grande (’18) and Hannah Kleiman (’18). Their immediate aggression and awareness of passing was definitely a factor in their early on success. The final score of the first set, 25-7, brought Samo with their first win out of three in order to defeat Lawndale.“We’re working a lot on aggression on the court,” coach Liane Sato said. “Passing and strong serving is key, and that’s why we work on it a lot.”With the second set came more success for Samo, as the Lawndale girls continued to make bad passes and short serves. The final score of the second set was 25-5.“This game allowed us to work on our skills because the team wasn’t as good,” Grande said. “We are going to be playing harder teams soon, so we [have] to practice what we need to work on. Like passing, because that seems to be our biggest weakness this season.”The energy of the team did not falter one bit, even though the outcome of the game was clear to everyone in the gym. The Samo girls were extremely supportive towards each other with every point, while still being gracious and humble towards the losing team.