AJMS’ first win of the season
Animo Jefferson Middle School (AJMS) played their fifth co-ed volleyball game on April 30. The team’s starters were Allison Hermosillo, Alia Contreras, Giancarlo Rivera, Giovanni Ramirez, Christian Fuentes, and Maria Atayde. AJMS had a record of 0-4, making winning this game crucial for them to have a chance to make the playoffs.
The first set was very close, with many strong saves and serves from AJMS that KIPP struggled to receive. The offense of KIPP Corazon against the defense of AJMS were evenly matched. But this set caused stress, which led the team to make numerous mistakes due to the closeness of the set. One of the starters, Giovanni, lost his composure and went to the corner to calm himself down. He said his passes and receiving were not good. However, the team pulled it together and AJMS won the first set 25-23.
The second set is where things took a different turn. Players for AJMS started to become nervous once KIPP got a lead. JMS players began blaming each other for not getting to the ball. This led to Corazon making a comeback and winning the second set.
Losing the set affected the team emotionally, especially Giancarlo, who thought he wasn’t doing well. Despite the loss of the second set, the whole team motivated both Giovanni and Giancarlo.
The third and final set was played to 15 instead of 25. Everyone knew they had to give their best efforts to secure their win. The pressure increased for both the players and the coach Ms. Thomas. In this set the same starters from the first set were put into the court. AJMS started strong with great serves and quickly built a lead, but the opposing team ran off nine straight points.
AJMS came back with several aces from Fernando Teodores, helping the team regain momentum and win the last set. This victory gave AJMS their first win of the season, improving their record to 1-4 which kept their playoff hopes alive.
After this game, Coach Thomas had the team practice once a week, helping the players improve drastically. Coach Thomas had them training on multiple skills that were necessary for their games.
Ms. Thomas said “…So I try to find people’s strong suits, so whether they’re strong in passing or setting or hitting or tipping or blocking, and then I practice, during practice, we have those people practice in that part of the position, and then, we have our subs rotate out, and we practice that at practice, too.”
Improvements the team made
The communication between team members in a volleyball game is very important and it ensures that the team are coordinated with each other. Without communication the team will fall apart and not be able to make the plays, maybe even mess up their receiving, or mess each other up.
“So communication is extra important in volleyball because there’s six people on the court, but there’s no, like, designated person to get it first. So it’s really about calling it as soon as you can so that two people don’t go for it or worse, that no one goes for it at all,” said Ms. Thomas.
One of the team captains, Aaron Garcia, feels that the team probably needed more defensive training. He felt that the team was more offensive than defensive-focused and needed more defensive training throughout their games and practices.
Aaron said, “… What needs more practice? Probably our defense. I think the team is very offensive and that’s a reason we lost some games, but we can work on defense for sure.”
Giancarlo feels that the team’s skills have drastically improved in receiving, passing, and spiking throughout the season. The team at the start of the season seemed lost and didn’t really know how to play together as this was most of their first times playing volleyball seriously.
“I feel that my team really improved because at the beginning they were lost and didn’t understand the game. Truth be told, neither did I, but I feel like we improved heavily from the start in every skill from passing to receiving.”
