Volleyball team goes 1-1, doesn’t make semifinals

In spite of going 1-1, MacArthur doesn’t make it out of its pool to defend the title

“We got off to a rough start,” said Volleyball Coach Mr. Ray Gonzales.    

On Saturday October 7, the girls volleyball placed fifth in the tournament at Valley High School and were coached by Gonzales and Instructional Aide Mrs. Maria Corona.

The first match against Carr proved pivotal, as MacArthur lost two of three.  In the first set, MacArthur lost with a score 25-17.  The second set was a 25-11 victory.  The girls had to play a third set, losing 15-13.  The next match was against McFadden, which had MacArthur winning both sets.

Because of the loss to Carr, MacArthur was not able to move forward to the semifinals, and ended with the fifth place finish.

The tournament was five hours for the three matches played.  The MacArthur volleyball team had 20 players, in total.

The team had a couple of weeks of tryouts and ended up with 20 people on the team.  They were mostly eighth graders because Gonzales wanted to give the eighth graders a chance to play and have the experience of the tournament. The captains were Eryn Vargas and Gabriela Muniz.

Carr’s volleyball team won seventh place and McFadden won sixth place.  Even though MacArthur won two of three, it wasn’t enough to move on.

The best players, according to Gonzales, on the volleyball team were eighth-graders Gabby Muniz and Kelli Pecheco.  Some other girls in the volleyball team were Eryn Vargas and Jasmine Medina, who was also chosen as a best player for our team.  “The team can improve by working harder and eating their veggies,” joked Gonzales.

Before the tournament, the team ran two laps around the blacktop as a warm up. They also did more warm-ups by practicing on serving, bumping, setting, spiking, communication, and moving their feet, and passing ball to setter.

The girls ended the practice playing scrimmages. The first game that they played was about an hour in a half. In the tournament there were about 500 spectators.