The MacArthur girls volleyball team earned second place after their Fall season. The team ended with a record of 5 – 1, winning their games against Villa Fundamental Intermediate, Esqueda K-8, Carr Intermediate, McFadden Intermediate, and Lathrop Intermediate, but losing to Santiago K-8.  

Eighth-grade Social Studies Teacher Ms. Isabelle Arriaga said, “I am a volleyball coach because I wanted to get involved and I wanted to have fun. Our volleyball team is proud of our progress and how much we have improved.”

The volleyball team won second place in the volleyball tournament, losing the championship match to Santiago.  At the tournament, they also played Villa and Lathrop.  The other games, all victories, were prior to the tournament as part of the new traveling portion of the sports season.  

Eighth-grader Crystal M. said, “Travelling was kinda scary because I didn’t know what the game was gonna be like.”  Crystal was inspired to join the team by her sister.  “My sister was the one that got me into volleyball and volleyball isn’t easy, it takes a lot of skill and communication,” said Crystal.

During the traveling portion of the season, the team had one game away from campus, traveling to Carr by bus.  They said it was fun but they could all agree that volleyball games are better with home games.  The team played two home games before the tournament.  Both were victories, with one against McFadden and the second home game was against Esqueda.

For six weeks, the team practiced after school every school day, except Wednesdays, from 2:30 to 4:15 PM.  At practice, the team focused mostly focused on drills.

Seventh-grader Vivianne N. said, “It’s fun to travel because we get to sit with our friends.  What I like about volleyball is that we get to have fun while we learn a difficult sport and we get to do it with friends.  Volleyball is kind of difficult since we have to mostly focus on different types of drills.”

This year’s volleyball team has improved a lot more from last year’s team. Last year the volleyball team did not get out of the group stage at the tournament. This year’s volleyball team made it all the way to the championship round.