Fountain Valley, CA — JV Lady Lions traveled to Los Cab and defeated the Mater Dei Monarchs 11 - 7 in our Trinity League opener this afternoon. We did this last year as well, but ended up splitting and tying for 2nd … we’ll work harder this season and hopefully sweep them. Proud of the girls today. This was a very seasoned Mater Dei team, with the same #1 player as last year and a few seniors sprinkled in as well, which is ok. Their varsity team is the best we’ve ever seen in Trinity League, one of the top teams in So Cal, so it is ez to understand that the JV team was a tough out. We took a beating in the first round, only winning 2 of 6 sets. However, we got a bit of an uplift when the girls watched Sophia Staff battle back from a slow start to push their # 2 player to 5-5 before losing 7-5. Her efforts were infectious, as the girls went out and won 5 of 6 sets in round 2! … which gave us a small edge 7-5 going into round #3. (7-5 can go away fast, the boys have been on both ends of that in CIF finals and semis) However, we finished strong taking 4 of 6 sets in the final round for a 11-7 match victory. Overall, we had a very balanced attack with 5 singles wins and 6 in doubles. The chemistry, communication and team play in doubles was good today, while our singles players continue to do what they did last season: show up, play hard and win. MVP status for today’s match = everyone who won 2 of 3 sets: Ava Hetland w Olivia Nowlan; Cecilia Nama w Natalia Gitibin; Sophia Staff w Caitlyn Davidson; along with Neeka Barkhordar and Sophia Staff in singles. Have a great 3 days off. Get ahead of your schoolwork and we’ll see you ALL Monday at practice. Next up: last year’s Trinity League champions, SMCHS at home on Tuesday.