Setting the season up for success, the Diamond Bar High School girls volleyball team won the 15 team Gabrielino Summer Tournament and 16 team Cal Poly Tournament in their preseason games.
They won 3-0 in their preseason matches against Brea, Northview and Bonita, but lost to St. Lucy’s, 1-3. They also won their second Summer Tournament Championship, where they scored undefeated against Alta Loma, Bishop Amat and Mayfair, and beat Claremont and Glendora in the finals bracket. With two championships under their belt and a 5-3 overall record, the team remains hopeful for the upcoming season.
“The varsity team actually performed very well in the summer,” head coach Rebecca Bevans said. “So winning two tournament championships certainly raised our expectations for this season.”
They also hosted a summer camp to get prepared for the upcoming season where they focused on fundamental techniques and training. This way, they could reintegrate back into the fall season while also coaching the new arrivals.
“We’ve had a pretty extensive summer schedule with lots of summer league games and tournaments, obviously with practice on the days we aren’t playing games,” senior Kavya Narayanan said.
Throughout the preseason games, they’ve been working on their teamwork. The team lost eight seniors last year, so with the many new underclassmen joining the varsity roster, the team is looking forward to reworking their composition as a team and advancing their offensive and defensive skills.
“We had to work on gelling as a new team because we lost a lot of seniors last year, so it was a good challenge to bond with the newer players,” Narayanan said. “But we picked it up pretty quickly and played really good volleyball.”
After encountering difficulty maintaining their team spirit throughout the games, the team is working toward qualifying for CIF, hoping to maintain their preseason momentum throughout the season by uplifting each other more often during games.
“Our team is very cohesive this year and it has been showing in our scores, but we have a tough time keeping our energy up the entire game,” senior Priya George said. “I hope we overcome that by the end of the season and have that fire in us to close out our games,”
In their upcoming game, the team is facing up against Walnut on Sept. 12, in hopes of starting off the Hacienda League season strong.
