Fighting through a high-pressure game, the JV White Volleyball team played against Cedar Ridge on Tuesday, Sept. 16. Despite a strong start, the Warriors fell short in both sets. The final score of the game was 2-0.

“Before the game, I felt pretty pumped, hyped and confident,” Kimmie Menendez ’28 said. “After, I thought [I wanted to] be more consistent and hype up my teammates.”

After a few hits out from both sides of the net, Cedar Ridge began pulling forward and took the lead at the start of the game. The Warriors, alerted by the Raiders lead, still kept focus and exhibited  calm, organized communication.This allowed them to build back their confidence and in turn, advance their score. An effective kill from Liberty Hargave ‘29 strengthened their motivation, bringing the score to 3-5. After a series of close rallies kicked off by a serve from Hargave, a powerful kill from Sophie Chen ‘29 brought the teams to a tie, 6-6. As the Warriors began a streak of consistent kills and advantageous serves, they reached 10-6 before timeout was called by Cedar Ridge. However, the Warriors began to show weakness with serve receive, leading to a takeover by Cedar Ridge. Losing momentum, the team’s communication began to falter due to growing doubts within the players. Even with a valiant slide by Menendez, the Warriors’ first set finished at a loss of 12-25.

“I thought [I could work on] my energy,” Sophie Chen ’29 said. “Overall, it’s my [mentality]. When we’re down, or when I’ve done a bunch of bad things, and then I’m just in my head and my energy brings everyone else down, I want to work on, when I’m in that situation, how to get out of it.”

Shaken by their loss, the Warriors struggled to get back on track as they started their next set.  An impactful serve from Lucy Aldrete ’28, allowed them to bounce back and tie the score at 4-4. Rebuilding morale with a series of solid kills, the team cheered for each other as they climbed back up the scoreboard with a growing lead. Nevertheless, a break in communication created holes amongst the Warriors, and they began to fall back despite multiple attempts at blocks. Once behind, the Westwood team’s struggle only grew, distracted by [move of ball hitting top of net]. This momentary weakness did not go unnoticed by the Raiders, using similar tricks to barrel forward in points. Discouraged, the Warriors were unable to regain their lead, ending at 15-25.

“I [need to] make sure I’m getting hype after points, always cheering on my teammates, and being kind to myself,” Lucy Aldrete ’28 said. “But I was proud of my team, [especially] Sophie, I think she got so many good swings and had great hustle.”

The JV White Volleyball team will take their home court again Friday Sept. 19 against Stoney Point.