Freshmen girls volleyball loses to Gunn

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Meena Gudapati

Connie Xu (9) sets the ball during the match. The girls went on to lose the game 0-2.

The freshman girls volleyball team lost their match against Gunn High School at the Saratoga campus on Wednesday.

In the first set, the Eagles came close to Gunn with a score of 20-25.  In the second game, Gunn defeated Harker 17-25 bringing the match score to 0-2.

“I think we fought pretty hard, especially in the first game, but I think we still could have done better and not made any of our own mistakes,” player Riya Gupta (9) said.

Riya also discussed the team’s strengths and weaknesses.

“I think we have some really good players, and we know how to communicate well when we need to except we don’t always do that,” Riya said.

Although the Eagles did not win the match, the coach and players expressed their opinions on Harker’s work ethic.

“My girls played like a team and fought for every point they played,” coach Mandy Schroeder said. “I just want to improve the overall competition of my team and keep them keep them playing together as a team.”

Schroeder commented on the team’s development since the girls started practicing together.

“We went from girls who haven’t played together to girls who have played together for years,” she said. “[For] some girls this is a brand new sport. [We] beat some pretty good teams, lost closely to some other good teams, but overall we’ve improved in the way we play, how we play and as a team.”

This is the first time Harker has had a freshman girls volleyball team since the 2013-2014 school year. As a result of the increased number of ninth grade students joining the sport, the upper school added the freshman team.

The girls will play their next away game on Oct. 1 against Saratoga High School.