This past Thursday, the Girls’ Volleyball team dominated against Dade Christian, winning all three sets and handing them their first season loss. 

“It feels great to have won that game, I think the girls did great and it was a good match,” junior player Gabriela Fernandes said.

The Raiders came off of a poor showing in the Nike Tournament of Champions in Gainesville. During this tournament, the Raiders received all five of their losses, losing to Trinity Catholic, McGill-Toolen, and Plant High School, the #1 team in Florida and 11th in the nation.

“That tournament was definitely rough. We played some of the top teams in the nation and even though we could have won all our games, we unfortunately came up short, said senior captain Ana Garcia. “ This was a huge learning experience for me and as a team and it definitely hurt me as the captain to let down my team in such a way,” Garcia said.

The result of the tournament lit a fire under the Raiders to motivate them to play better as a team. This has pushed the Raiders to win their last two games since the tournament, beating Westminster Academy, and Dade Christian.

“I felt like having a shaky tournament gave us motivation to keep pushing harder and continue to win against teams where we were close with,” said sophomore setter Brooke Quevedo.

Throughout the game, the team showed strong play with everyone participating in their role. Many of the younger players stepped up taking their assignments head on. 

“We all felt like we were working together as a team,” said sophomore Brooke Quevedo. “Since the beginning of the season, we all needed to find that comfort level to be able to play together. And I felt that we all found that comfort level when playing,” said Quevedo.

The Raiders now sit at 5-5 and will go against Archbishop Carroll today at 6:30 p.m. at their house looking to extend their winning streak.

“You can definitely expect us to give it our 150% at today’s game and hopefully come home with a win,” said senior Ana Garcia; “We have been diligently practicing every day to improve our skills and I think if we implement everything we have learned in such a short time, it will be very hard to beat us. Not only in this game but for the next games to come,” Garcia said.