The New Roads Jaguars beach volleyball team ultimately fell short against the Pacifica Christian Santa Monica Seawolves 4-1 at Sorrento Beach.
New Roads beach volleyball coach Jasmine Dixon set the scene for the match: “I’m really excited about the weather today. We have sunny skies and not a lot of wind, so I think the girls are going to perform very well. We played Pacifica earlier in the season and didn’t do too well, but we’ve improved a lot and have been working really hard.” The pairs in this match for New Roads were: Eva Dandridge/Evie Millstein, Neema Hamilton/Navah Gould, Zoya Ahmad/Stella Blakeney, Iliana Klier/Kim Morrera and Malia Marshall/Alia Asher.
Pre-match, Dixon weighed in on how she expected her one’s to perform: “Super confident in my one’s. We got a really big win against Milken yesterday. They performed very well. I have two of my indoor setters playing as our one’s so they have really good communication and ball control. They're excited and super competitive. So I think it’s going to be a really great match.”
The one’s for New Roads were Dandridge and Millstein. Millstein started off the match with a perfect serve that landed in the back of the Seawolves court. Dandridge and Millstein used solid teamwork to gain points during this set. The Jaguars spirits were up even though they lost the first set 21-7. In the second set, methodical teamwork and passing led to a point for New Roads. Their fundamentals were on display in the middle of the second set. Crisp passes from Millstein helped keep her team in the match. However, fatigue began to set in for the Jaguars as they lost the set 21-16. Therefore, they lost their match 2-0; although, they made progress in the second set.
Millstein weighed in post-match, saying: “They had really hard hits and good placement of the ball. We communicated well in the second set.”
In the matchup of the three’s, Zoya Ahmad and Stella Blakeney won their match. Ahmad’s communication with Blakeney was prevalent from the start. The pair demonstrated great ball control on the receiving end of spikes from the Seawolves. Blakeney had a key serve that hit the net and went over, resulting in a point for New Roads. Ultimately, it was Ahmad’s vocality that led to New Roads winning the matchup of the three’s.
Post-match, Ahmad said, “I am a very vocal person naturally and feel like it really helps to encourage my teammates to get the ball and having good confidence while playing is a really important component to help keep energy up and mindset as well.” Blakeney summed it up by saying, “We’ve been working on communication a lot in practice, especially how being confident and vocal can help a team win. Exuding confidence really helps.”
Darryl Harvey, SMDP Intern