Girls varsity volleyball
Closing their fall game season, the girls varsity volleyball team won several games amid a 3-1 loss against the South Pasadena Tigers on Oct. 16, making their league score 5-5. In a recent home game, the Rams secured a victory against the San Marino Titans with a score of 3-0 on Oct. 15.
“We need that big win; it’s very important to us,” coach Lyle Takeshita said. “It puts us in a better position to make to the CIF playoffs.”
The team worked on serving, hitting and passing drills and practiced scrimmages for their past games.
“We play well when we are happy,” senior Andrea Chen said. “The most important thing is to work as a team, because without team coordination you can’t play volleyball.”
Girls varsity tennis
The girls varsity tennis team tied their away game against the South Pasadena Tigers with a score of 9-9 on Oct. 17, adding to their league score of 2-4.
“I have greatly enjoyed being the varsity coach so far and appreciate the hard work that the girls put in every day,” coach Richard Slaymaker said. “Their willingness to learn has helped them achieve their goals both during practice and in matches.”
The team continues to build their skills after their 13-5 win against the Maranatha Minutemen on Thursday, Oct. 10.
“A good mindset definitely helps; if you have a bad mindset you probably already lost,” junior Alice Wang said. “We need lots of strategies and techniques, such as knowing where to place the ball, since they help you win the game.”
Slaymaker helps the team by teaching new methods to strengthen their serves and returns. Aside from practices, he has the team reflect on their progress by reading articles and doing visualization strategy exercises.
“He finds articles online about tennis for us to read,” co-captain senior Shirly Zhang said. “I think that really helps. Tennis is a sport that you have to think when playing, during games you have to think strategically so that really helps.”
As CIF playoffs approach, which start the week of Nov. 4, the girls will face each team once more. If the team makes it to the top three teams in their league, they will move on to CIF playoffs.
The team’s next home games will be against the Monrovia Wildcats on Oct. 22 and the Spartans on Oct. 24.