Chantal Rivera is a student journalist at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University assigned to cover South Mountain High School volleyball.

Away from their territory, the South Mountain Jaguars were comfortable and optimistic heading into their match against the Gilbert Tigers on Monday night.

But luck was not on their side, as the Lady Jags fell to the Tigers 3-0. The scores were 25-15, 25-12 and 25-7.

Coach Paula Spratlen-Mitchell knew that this would not be an easy game for the squad. Being in a different part of the city was one of the obstacles Spartlen knew she needed to work on with the squad, so she decided to take a different approach when prepping for this match.

“We did more mental preparation for this game. They have to battle their voices in their heads as well as the opponent on the other side of the net,” Spratlen said. “So, we do more positive talk, like telling them to shake off errors.”

Starter players of the night were juniors Adriana Perea, Jordan Dansby, and Lauraya Moses, along with sophomores Arianna Nino, Kamri Radden, and Yasmine Cannon., and, lastly, senior Destinee Bigman.

The rallies were getting harder each time for the Lady Jags, though their determination in the court was helping them to get back up when things weren’t looking good for them.

They focused on team contributions, but  the key player of the night was the team captain and sophomore outside hitter Kamri Radden. She ended the night with six kills and three aces.

“I think that I adjusted well. I got out of my head and I said to myself that I didn’t want to let them score me again,” Radden said.

Gilbert was taking the lead at the beginning of each set, which forced the Jaguars to wake up and make the Tigers work for those points. Still, Gilbert took each set handily.

South Mountain standout Dansby kept a positive attitude at the end of the game, but she was also aware that there are some improvements the team can make for the matches ahead.

“When I saw that we were letting balls drop, I said, 'This needs to stop, make them work for the points,' ” Dansby said. “Nobody lost their mental game, and that’s great. In my opinion, we had a strong mental game.”

Dansby felt that although the team was playing as one, there were two key players who she thought stepped into leadership in this game.

“For one, Yasmine Cannon, she encouraged the team to do better and it wasn’t in a bossy way. Secondly, Kam (Radden), she went in for the ball and gave us points when we needed them,” Dansby said.

The Jaguars will keep working on their weaknesses for future games, and there are some key changes coach Spratlen believes are necessary to improve the team’s scores.

“We need to work on our block and block cover in the future,” the head coach said.

Although the defeat was hard for the Lady Jags, they stayed positive for the future and the rest of the season. South Mountain’s next match will also be away, this Tuesday against their rivals, the Camelback Spartans.