Leilani Feiertag is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Westwood High School for AZPreps365. 

 

Just as the match was about to start, Red Mountain’s fans and players assembled around the bleachers and began their chant, treating the bleachers like drums with the sounds of a war cry echoing through the gym and setting the tone for the game. 

The harmonies of the fans and players filled the entire gymnasium on October 16 when Westwood High School hosted its varsity volleyball match against Red Mountain. Both teams compete in the 6A East Valley Conference, with the Mountain Lions sitting 4-2 and third in the region. 

The Warriors fought hard in the first set, winning it 25-20. The girls appeared to be pushing their limits by putting their full bodies into their digs, sliding across the floor and doing somersaults and even leaping into the bleachers to keep the ball in the air. The girls seemed willing to do anything in order to keep the rally going, and ultimately secured the first set. 

“When the energy is high, you’re having more fun and you’re willing to do more,” said Claire Arnett, opposite hitter for the Warriors. “When you’re having more fun putting the ball away and you have more adrenaline and power, and you’re clicking better together, all those connections are just way better. ”

Even so, it seemed like the Warriors could not keep up that same momentum for the rest of the match, losing the last three sets to Red Mountain, making the final score a 1-3 loss for the Warriors. 

“After the first set, we just slacked off a little bit, and we thought it was going to be an easy game,” said Ada Larsen, libero for the Warriors. “As the sets went on, we just stopped playing the way we knew how to play, and we need to clean it up and let them make the errors before we make them ourselves.” 

Rylee Blagg, captain and middle for the Warriors, said she believes that a big thing her team needs to work on is keeping the energy up throughout the entire game.

However, energy was not lacking in the stands with the student section on their feet chanting, “You can’t do that!” to Red Mountain and keeping up the morale for the Warriors.

“It makes it way more fun because it’s all our friends and siblings, and you have our parents rooting for us in the stands,” Arnett said. “It makes you want to do better and kind of show off to the people in the stands.” 

Throughout the match, the Mountain Lions were always cheering and chanting, whereas the Warriors seemed to get more quiet as the match went on. 

“Whether it’s we win a point or lose a point, celebrating the good things,” Arnett said. “If we lost a point, go, ‘Hey you know what somebody had a good pass,’ or ‘We tried our best, and we called this ball, even if we weren’t going to get it,’ just finding a good thing to focus on.”