Girls volleyball wins league, makes deep playoffs run

The Santa Monica High School girls’ varsity volleyball team completed their 2024 fall season as Ocean League champions with a record of 21-6-1, ending their season in the third round of the CIF Southern Section division four playoffs. 

The girls’ volleyball team’s season officially started on Aug. 31 with a win against the Brentwood High School Eagles. Throughout September, the Vikings won 14 out of their 16 games played. The Vikings then went on a six-game winning streak leading into their win against Culver City High School on Oct. 15, making them the Ocean League champions and securing their spot in the CIF Southern Section playoffs.

Captain Jasmine Martinez (’26) explains how the team prepared for the CIF playoffs and the pride they had for making it as far as they did. 

“This is the farthest we’ve made it at CIF in a while, so we were really proud of that. We worked really really hard in practice and we looked at the other teams that we were playing against and figured out what we needed to work on to beat them, like the strengths and weaknesses they might have and then we focused on trying to improve on those things,” Martinez said. 

The Samo girls’ volleyball team’s CIF Southern Section Playoffs run started on Oct. 26 with a 3-0 win against Hillcrest High School. Their next CIF game was on Oct. 30 against Newbury Park High School, which resulted in a 2-3 loss for Samo, and elimination from playoffs. 

Despite their elimination from playoffs, captain Jane Robinson (’25) continues to have pride in her team and is excited about how far they have come. 

“We won league and grew so much over this season. We also went the farthest we have in playoffs since I've been here, we made it to the third round and it was a super close game. That was really exciting,” Robinson said. 

Coach Liane Sato is proud of the team's progression through the past few years and is excited for the seasons to come. 

“I'm really proud of the team for making it as far as they did in playoffs, they worked their asses off in practice and it showed in the game,” Sato said. “This is the farthest they've gotten in probably over 5 years and I'm really excited to see where they will go in 2025 and other future seasons, but I'm gonna miss the seniors from this year.”