SJND Girls Finishes 2nd Place at Stockton Classic Volleyball Tournament
Written by Amelia Mnich SJND ‘28
On August 24th, the SJND varsity volleyball team made a trip out to Stockton to play at the girls Stockton Classic Volleyball Tournament. This tournament had a total of 12 teams from all over NorCal. Edison High School hosted this tournament. We all had one mindset coming into this tournament, and it was giving it our all but remembering to have fun and make tons of memories.
The doors of this gym opened bright and early at 7:15am. Once all the girls got there, everyone started stretching and warming up. Having a good warm up is crucial to start the game. The very first game started at 8am against Somerville High School. SJND won the first set 25–13 and then won the second set as well with a score of 25–12. One main thing we focused on this game was to have fun and try out new things since this wasn’t a close game.
The second game in pool play was against the hosting school, Edison High School. The girls started off really strong in the beginning half of the first set but then Edison caught up making it a close game. We ended up winning this set 25–20. In the second set we started off really strong as well but this time managed to get a big lead and win this entire match 25–15. Everyone had a lot of amazing kills this entire game but the defense was incredible. After this match the girls had a long break waiting to play in the top bracket of this tournament.
Our first game in bracket play started around 2pm. The girls started warming up as early as possible so that they would be warm and ready to play in the semi-final game against Lincoln High School. The beginning of the first set was pretty even, but for the most part Lincoln was winning by 2 points. Towards the end of that set, the girls picked up the energy and hustle, winning that set 25–23. In the second set the score was 23–24 with SJND losing and after a tough serve, Lincoln won that set 25–23.
I asked my teammate, Clara Verdickt, a freshman, what her thoughts were going into this 3rd set and she said, “We are going to have to fight hard but I believe that we can win this. It is all about our mindset and focus that we need to put in.” The third set started off pretty even. Both the teams had great defense as well as amazing swings. Early on in the set SJND got a big lead, making the score 12–6. Then after serving 3 more balls we closed off this game winning 15–6 and getting to play in the final of the gold bracket!!
Going into the last match, the girls went in with a positive mindset ready to give it their all!! The school played in the final match was Mission High School located in Fremont. During warm ups the other team looked very strong, which made the girls a little bit nervous. MSJ began the set off with an insane amount of energy. The SJND girls were not communicating too well in serves received and MSJ took advantage of that by coming out with very strong serves. We lost this set 25–10.
We told ourselves we have nothing to lose and we have to leave it all out onto this court. During the next set the score was pretty even the whole time. Once we got to game point for the other team, the score was 24–20 for MSJ. The girls needed to focus on keeping their serves in and fighting until the end. SJND caught up making the score 23–24 which forced the MSJ coach to call a timeout. Everyone was so nervous but we were able to make the serve over and MSJ managed to tip and get the kill for the win. After the game, I asked Kylie Villagomez, a junior, what her thoughts were after the loss? “I am super proud of us for coming this far especially since we have been only practicing together for a week.”
The SJND girls varsity volleyball finished 2nd out of 12 teams!! This was definitely a tough loss for the girls but they managed to make so many memories and bonds with each other that will never be forgotten.
