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On Wednesday Oct. 19, Granite Hills played Robert F. Kennedy and the Grizzlies proudly walked away with the glory.

The scores were RFK 26-24, Granite 25-19, RFK 25-14, Granite 25-22, and finally, Granite 15-13. Granite held their own even though they were missing an important player from their team.

Mariela Tapia, senior from Granite, was unexpectedly unable to make the game due to an emergency. Tapia plays one of the hitters on the team and her spot was filled by Vanessa Felix.

In the first game, the Granite volleyball team kept up a great team effort, but needed to adjust to having players at different positions. Hannah Vehrs made a great save in the back row by digging up a ball that was spiked from RFK.

Granite obviously had better communication on the court than RFK. They moved as a team and left no open spaces for balls to get by them. Wendy Comargo gave a great effort wherever she played and always kept an enthusiastic spirit.

Both teams had good rallies and Lupita Flores and Debra Rodriguez both made great saves. To save a ball, Flores had to run almost into the bleachers and spike the ball quick, causing her to fall down. The ball successfully stayed in play but as RFK tried to spike on Granite, Rodriguez was quick to recover the ball and make the point.

Unfortunately, Granite lost the first game. It was close because the score became tied 24-24 at the end causing the winning team to win by two more points, the final score being 26-24.

In the second game Granite started off with a struggle. Some mistakes were made, but soon enough the Grizzlies used teamwork to make impressive saves and spikes.

Granite won two rallies thanks to Carina Felix, who killed RFK with her spikes. The good effort was infectious as Vehrs made two saves in the back row followed by Rodriguez saving a ball by spiking in the front row. Also, Dulce Martinez made a good dig that set Rodriguez up to spike the ball.

The Grizzlies managed to beat RFK in this game and were enthusiastic for their next game.

The third game was the last game RFK won for the night. Granite was unable to beat RFK and made some mistakes. The Grizzlies had trouble getting their spikes in, and when someone hustled and saved the ball, no one helped it over the net.

This loss only motivated Granite to come back stronger and clean up the mistakes made in the previous game. In the fourth game, Carina Felix made many more kills on RFK. As she spiked on them, RFK was unable to return the ball.

The crowd enthusiastically cheered for the Grizzlies when the girls saved the ball and spiked on RFK. Rodriguez was an example of what the crowd wanted to see as she saved the ball out of the net. Also, Jody Georgianna made good passes so Flores could be set up to spike.

As Granite won the fourth game and got motivated for the tiebreaking game, they constantly cheered each other on and had high spirits.

“I think we played really scrappy, but we played our hearts out for Mariela,” said Vanessa Felix.

The final game was exciting as many rallies took place. The game was close as the scores were constantly being tied. Carina Felix broke the final tie 12-12 with another kill on RFK. Also, Rodriguez successfully tipped the ball which RFK wasn’t expecting.

“The team was proud of Carina for being the first player to hit ten kills in a game. Overall we would rather take an ugly win then a pretty loss,” said Lupita Flores.

Overall, winning three out of five games, the Grizzlies put up a fight to the end. Although they were missing an important player, the girls managed to get by. The volleyball team would be more motivated if more people came to support them.

“We need more people to come to our games and support us,” said Carina Felix. “I thought we played horrible, it was one of our worst games. I’m surprised we won.”