The girls volleyball team has reached new heights this season, giving their best performance in recent years. Out of the entire season, the team has only suffered four losses, leaving a trail of victory behind them on the road to CIFs, which began Oct. 26. Even after dropping from Open Division to D1 last season and losing nine seniors at the end, the team has made an impressive comeback with the addition of five new members. Captain Ava Zamora (11) has been on the varsity team since her freshman year and said she believes the current team is the best she’s seen so far.

“Even after losing a bunch of seniors, we have new underclassmen who are really stepping up, making a big difference, and putting in the effort,” Zamora said. “They try hardI think this is the best year for Westview volleyball that I’ve been on.”

This year, the girls have a new addition to their coaching staff: Adrian Papps, who trains them in the Westview gym to work on their strength and conditioning. Before this season, the team did not have a coach who focuses on building their endurance, so Zamora said this practice has increased the group’s stamina in games and helped them improve their overall performance.

“We work with him every Friday in the school gym after school, and he works on getting our strength up [with weight training],” Zamora said. “I feel like he really helps our endurance and helps us prepare for [upcoming games].”

The team has a rigorous practice schedule to ensure they improve their skills and strategies throughout the season. Along with the hour-long Friday afternoon strength training, they generally have games on Tuesdays and Thursdays. However, this year they have added another practice in the middle of the week.

“Now, on Wednesdays, we have a practice in the morning before school, which is pretty brutal after a Tuesday night game and before a Thursday night game,” Zamora said. “But I feel like it helps us because it prepares us and then we have the afternoon off [so we can rest].”

According to Zamora, in their practices, coach Nancy Ros focuses on the very first pass of the ball to work on their starting plays. 

“She really puts an emphasis on the first contact of the ball,” Zamora said. “We do a lot of passing in practice, and we have really consistent passing, which is what puts us above other teams.”

Captain Nia Thompson (11) said prioritizing passing in defense is the strategy they often use in games and tournaments, which gives them an advantage despite several of the members being shorter than the average high school player.

“We do have a pretty short team relative to a lot of volleyball teams,” Thompson said. “So, our generic strategy is to stay hitting high and doing our best to keep up with the taller hitters that we’re playing against. We usually have a big focus on our defense.”

While the team’s strategies and practice techniques have evolved over time and boosted their playing, their overall connection as a group has changed as well. Zamora said that this year, the team has done bonding activities like a Day at the Bay, an all-day trip that included games and food which was organized by their coaches, as well as team dinners and other outside activities that have strengthened the team’s unity.

“I definitely think [bonding activities] help us gain trust with each other and work together as a team,” Zamora said. “Especially at the start of the season, we had a bunch of new players and we had to figure out how we play but also each other’s personalities so we could learn to interact on and off the court.”

Thompson, who joined the varsity team her freshman year as well, said she believes the group has been able to overcome some interpersonal challenges over the years and now functions better as a whole.

“I feel like our team chemistry really came together this year,” Thompson said. “In past years there’s been conflicts and arguments off the court that impact our performance [in games]. This year we’ve gotten rid of that and it’s been just a good, healthy environment for us.”

Zamora and Thompson, along with their third co-captain Makena Roberts (12), are the leaders of the team and are in charge of building team connection and ensuring decisions are made in the interests of each member. According to Thompson, this has been something the team has gotten better at over time, which has influenced the stronger bond the teammates have formed throughout the season.

“We don’t like doing it where the captains have all this superiority over [the rest of the team] because I feel like it ruins the team chemistry,” Thompson said. “In past years, like when I was a freshman, sometimes we would struggle with that and the captains would say that [they are] the only ones who could make decisions. But we try to avoid that now and just let everybody feel like they have a place to speak and they don’t feel shut down in any way.”

This link between the members of the team has allowed them to surpass previous years and perform well throughout the season.

As of now, the team is seeded 4th in San Diego and they expect to perform well in the CIF tournament, according to both Thompson and Zamora. 

“[Torrey Pines and Westview] are definitely the teams competing for first place in our league,” Zamora said. “They’re a pretty competitive team, but we treat every game equally and always try to bring our best.”