They came out knowing that it would be a tough task, but were willing to fight for the victory against San Juan Hills.

The girls came out with high energy scoring the first two points of the game and taking the early lead on some mistakes by San Juan. After San Juan bounced back, tying the game at two, the Lady Patriots took a 5-2 lead after a couple San Juan miscues. When San Juan got a side out, they began to build up their momentum, taking advantage of Oxford’s missed hits as well as miscommunications. San Juan was able to build a 6 point lead with the score 11-17. But then back-to-back kills by Senior Alexis Medina and Junior Celina Vicuna brought back some much needed energy and emotion for the Lady Patriots. Medina then followed up those kills with good serving to rally the Patriots back to within 3 points. A timeout by San Juan disrupted the Lady Patriots’ momentum and San Juan again took advantage of a few bad passes coupled with miscommunication by Oxford. The Patriots simply weren’t able to rally back as San Juan closed out the first game 16-25.

Oxford entered the second game looking to tie it up and force at least a fourth game. But they came out flat as they fell behind in the early going 7-13, due to the little mistakes such as missing serves. It seemed like every time that they would build up some confidence or energy on a good point, they would surrender it back by missing the following serve. One chance to rally back during the second game was when Senior Megan Fitzpatrick served up a couple of aces to bring the Lady Patriots within 10 points at 11-21. Soon after, San Juan was able to close out the second game with relative ease 11-25.

The girls came out in game 3 looking to salvage at least one win and not get shutout. Senior captain, Lani Ancheta came out serving strong and gave the Patriots an early lead at 3-0. San Juan was able to rally back and take a 3 point lead off of Oxford’s mistakes and make the score 4-7. The Lady Patriots were able to get some energy after a tip by Vicuna but the following serve went in San Juan’s favor. San Juan continued to capitalize on Oxford’s mistakes and built up a 12 point lead at 8-20. Oxford tried rallying back one last time behind Fitzpatrick as she was able to work some strong serving and bring the lead back to within 8 points at 13-21. The two teams exchanged points, but in the end, the deficit was just too much for Oxford to come back from and they ended up losing 17-25.

Though it is only the beginning of the season, the challenges ahead are apparent. The rest of the season will have its bright moments through the leadership of Seniors Ancheta and Fitzpatrick, as was evident from this game. The Lady Patriots need to maintain the type of energy that they came out with and extend it for the duration of the game. The girls know that they are capable of better and they know that they will be able to reach their desired mark.