In California the color pink is usually meant for girls to be more feminine or for girls to have a more stylistic added in the sport of volleyball.
However, the Granite Hills High School Lady Grizzlies (12-7-3, EYL 2-1-0) wore pink ribbons, pink socks and pink warm up shirts to show their support for breast cancer awareness on Wednesday, Sept. 30, when they hosted the Delano High School Lady Tigers
Granite Hills prepares for the match.
Photo by Marissa Martinez
In addition Granite’s coach Richard Lambie geared the girls with pink volleyballs to warm up with and gave each referee a pink whistle.
One might ask if the highlighted pink was the only thing worth watching Wednesday night – the answer is definitely not.
The Lady Tigers challenged Granite in four matches, but only managed to win the first one: 25-23, 25-14, 25-19, 25-22.(1-5-0, EYL 0-2-0).
After falling hard to cross-town rivals the Monache High School Lady Marauders and to Tulare Union High School Lady Redskins winning was a hopefully thought for Granite.
"We really started playing as team," senior Vanessa Alcantar said. "I was really glad that we pulled off a quality team win today."
All around player and team captain Alcantar had five kills and contributed eight digs on the defensive side.
The first match was dominated by the Lady Tigers from the first point to the last. The Lady Grizzlies also made additional errors and started off slow this, which gave the Lady Emperors instant power and an instant lead on the court throughout the first match. The Lady Grizzlies found themselves in a pickle – they were down by six points early in the first match.
And the Lady Tigers took advantage of this by finding the empty spots on the court and making serve and receive difficult for the Lady Grizzlies.
"We really played flat that first game," junior Emily Fechner said. "We should have just came out with a different attitude."
Granite Hills celebrates after a point.
Photo by Marissa Martinez
However, in the second, third and fourth match Fechner rocked the net and cleaned up with six kills and four block while senior Natalie Congdon chipped in four kills and three blocks.
Lady Grizzlies’ libero, Deanna Alamillo, held the defense together with 13 digs. While setter Jennifer Landers put up 17 assists.
"We struggle to start off strong and finish strong," Alamillo said. "We are working on it, but I think it is a really important factor of winning."
The Lady Grizzlies will travel to Tulare Western High School where the words "team" and "determination" will really be tested.
