On Tuesday, Oct. 3, the Freshman volleyball team played against Vandegrift on the Warriors home court. After a hard fought game taking it to three sets, the Warriors lost the game 2-1.Even though the Warriors comfortably controlled the first set with it ending 25-19, they lost the lead in the second set, flipping the score, but this time losing 25-19. With the game on the line in the third set the Warriors played their hardest to out-pace the Vipers and although losing the set, the Warriors did not give up, even as Vandegrift ran the score up in the last few points of the set.

The Warriors started strong in the first set with Chiara Kanazawa ‘27 serving the ball, getting Westwood their first 2 points of the game. They didn’t let up with the Warriors being able to gain a considerable lead at 12-5. Consistent and strong serves from DeLaney Selfridge ‘27 stopped Vandegrift from being able to control the ball and close the gap, and the Warriors won the set.

“I was super excited when we were winning because Vandegrift is a really hard team,” Jordyn Choe ‘26 said. “With us in the lead I was feeling much more confident. Our coach also told us he would be dyeing his beard if we won our games which we were really looking forward to.”

Despite losing the second set, the Warriors knew they still had a chance to bring it home in the third set and tried to keep their spirits up high with high-fives and cheering on their teammates. Practicing good sportsmanship, the Warriors did their best to keep the energy up on the bench and on court, knowing there could be a quick turnaround.

“We kept up our morale even if we were losing by a bit,” Aisley Romansky ‘27 said. “We’ve had some crazy comebacks. In volleyball, once you get a serve, you’re at an advantage so just thinking one point at a time kept us in the game.”

Even though the Warriors wanted to win against Vandegrift for the second time this season they will have to wait until next season to beat the Vipers. All of the Warriors knew immediately after the game what they needed to work on and will continue to practice and continuously improve to beat the Vipers the next time around.

“As a team, in order to come back from the loss, I think we really should work on more communication and to keep our energy up,” Choe said. “We could also do some more practice on passing but overall I think we did good. We all knew what we needed to do and it was hard trying to achieve that so we will really work on that.”

The Warriors will play their next home game against Vista Ridge on Friday, Oct. 6, at 6:30 p.m.