By Ale Ibarra Posted October 14, 2016
Although the JV volleyball team is 4-6 on the season, new coach Mandy Chaffin has been nothing but positive towards her team.
“Words of advice and team motto are always play hard and play smart,” said Chaffin. “I always want my JV girls to improve every game, whether it’s serving tough or taking more swings at the net. The dynamic of the team is a strong bond. I coached the majority of these girls at the Freshman level and have had the privilege to coach them at the JV level. We are a ‘family’ who have grown as individuals and athletes. It’s definitely been a fun year thus far. The girls come to practices ready to work hard, and I am proud of how far they have come. We are building a program, brick by brick.”
Chaffin sees potential in each girl as an individual, and she’s willing to transform their mistakes into wisdom.
“We can improve on better communication on the court and being more aggressive at the net,” said Chaffin. “We have a tendency to play too safely, and it causes us not to put the ball back over the net with a purpose. I like to see my hitters swing versus taking it easy and doing a roll shot or tipping back over the net.”
This Homecoming Week, the Lady Bucks had two games. The first was a home game on Wednesday, October 5.
The crowd was loud and showed support during the warm-ups and throughout the matches. However, the girls were under pressure about halfway through the first match. They ended up losing 25-16 in the first match and then 25-15 in the second match to Fernley. By the end of the game, the expressions on the girls’ faces showed how much they knew they could have done better.
“I think the little mistakes we made messed us up,” said Viviana Leon. “It was okay, I mean, the hustling was pretty okay. But I think we can step it up. Tomorrow we play Fallon, and I think we can back up what we did today.”
The second game was at Fallon on October 6. The girls ended up losing 25-16 in both matches. Cruz Jimenez, a sophomore, confirmed that once the team can play in sync and really have that connection on the court, they’ll be able to redeem themselves from all mistakes.
“We have really good passes, sets, and hits; we just need to put them together,” said Cruz Jimenez. “Like, sometimes we’ll have a really good pass, and then either the sets’ off or the hits’ off, but we just have to put it all together and get a good play on it. We did very well in the first match, but we got down in the second one. We could have done better, but we lacked communication and motivation. We didn’t have much momentum, and we let little mistakes get in the way.”
These JV Lady Bucks are full of confidence, talent, and most importantly, sportsmanship. One loss doesn’t get these girls down to the point where they can’t get back up again.
“I think we can do good, once we can get it in our head that we’re okay, we can do really good,” said Jenny Torres.
