With a win from the Diamond Ranch tournament and practice from its preseason games under its belt, the Diamond Bar High School’s varsity volleyball team is going into its season with more confidence than ever.

Though winning the Diamond Ranch tournament helped boost the moral of the team, its preseason losses proved even more valuable in helping the team grow prior to the start of the season. The tough preseason prepped the Lady Brahmas for the challenging road.

“That fact that we had a tough preseason is good because we have a really tough league as well when it comes to volleyball,” said head coach Becky Bevans. “The preseason is helping us establish a starting line up that we can move forward within league and it helps us identify the things that we’re doing well and the areas of the game that we need to work on and practice.”

With an already strong defense, the team is mostly working on staying consistent with its serve receive and minimizing the amount of mistakes made during its attack. Another area of focus that is beginning to receive more attention is developing a stronger offense.

“We have been running many drills that focus directly on our offense at practice like the drill offense versus defense,” senior team captain, setter, and opposite Morgan Dempsey said via Facebook.

The mental aspect of the game is another focus for the team. They have worked on not only sustaining their strength, but also staying confident even when facing a tough team.

“One of our biggest challenges is being intimidated by other teams that are bigger and stronger than us, but we are working hard to become one of those teams that can work really well as a unit,” sophomore middle blocker Ana Figueroa said.

To qualify for CIF, the team needs to be either in top three of their league or have won at least half of their games. Most years the Lady Brahmas have qualified, and they feel that this year will be no exception as long as they can continue to put forth their best effort.

“I know we can qualify if we keep pushing each other to the best of our abilities because we all made the team for a reason. Consistence and confidence is key,” senior libero and defensive specialist Kiana Malbas said via Facebook.

Going into the season, which started on Oct. 1, the Lady Brahmas have high hopes so long as they find the perfect balance between mental resilience and physical toughness.

“I feel like we’re as prepared as we can be. We’ve made improvements in every area of the game. Our big thing now is just if we be consistent and play our best game every time we get out there. That’ll be our challenge,” Bevans said.