Volleyball concludes season in second round of CIF

Samo volleyball’s hard work pays off; theVikings made it to second round in playoffs.Samo defeated Carpinteria High School 3-0 in the first round of the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Southern Section playoffs, earn- ing a ticket to the second round. The team’s struggles in Hawaii, which were followed by a team meeting, as well as the 4-4 Ocean league record, were all put behind them as the team finally pushed through and began to see the light at the end of the tunnel.The team played consistent de- fense and clicked on offense in its play- off opener victory, according to start- ing opposite hitter Noah Alemania (’15). The team also improved its serv- ing, which has proved to be a problem in past matches.“We played well in our system; we had a gameplan and stuck to it,” Alemania said. “We were also able to serve tougher and consistently and let our defense set up and dig their hits. Our offense was really clicking as well, and we were able to ride our momen- tum throughout the match.”Though the team faced long odds to make it into the CIF playoffs to- wards the beginning of the season, the players have since turned it around. They finished the season with a 3-1 re- cord in the last half of league play.“Defense and hustle were big things for us,” Alemania said. “We didn’t play well defensively [earlier in the season] so we were able to step up big for that. Our hitters have been swinging a lot smarter and that has given us a stronger offense. We are also sticking to our game plan better [as] we have become a lot more disci- plined.”According to outside hitter Tyler Goodman (’15), Samo’s key to suc- cess all season long has been an im- provement in daily practices. This is what led Samo to the victory against Carpinteria High School on May 12.“[It was] very rewarding,” Good- man said. “We lost almost every away game and on the one that counted, we pulled out a good win.”Unfortunately, in a home game on Thursday, May 14, the Vikings were not able to bring the same magic as they lost to the Warren High School Bears 0-3 in the second round play- off matchup. The Bears were a strong team with a stout defense and got the upper hand on Samo in the match. According to middle blocker Noah Wright (’16), the team believed that they had a chance to go further.“We were not able to play good enough defense against their stronger offense and that hurt us a lot,” Ale- mania said. “Our mentality was not there either as we got too caught up in our mistakes and could not recover.”Though the team’s season abruptly ended that night, Alemania believes that the team grew progressively better as the season wore on.

“We started off the season pretty slowly but as the season progressed, we got better every match and really came together as a team,” Alemania said.

According to Wright, the team still has much work to do to get better for next season.“We should work on our de- fense, to get better with the timing off our block and being low and ready,” Wright said.As Alemania played his last game as the Samo volleyball captain and leader, he only had one message for next year’s team:“Leave it all on the court and just have fun playing the game with the guys who will become your brothers.”