By Alex Bahena ’19
The ladies Varsity Volleyball team dismantled Rowe-Clark on Sept. 24 at ITW’s gymnasium. Fellow parents and family were in attendance to support the lady jaguars in their game.
The girls had a pretty decent season picking up victories and a few losses along the way, but they are still playing their hearts out. The game against Rowe-Clark was not really a challenge for the girls since the game ended so quickly. According to junior Betzy Alamo, “we do like a little bit of challenge but it was a good practice also for the other school to see what they’re up against.” This game also gave praise to the team for playing a fun game. They won two consecutive sets with the scores being 25-4 and 25-10 respectfully. Both sets saw the girls putting up multiple points, but Rowe-Clark was still determined to score. Even though they had a bad first set, they did not give up and scored more in the next set. It still was not enough to take down the ladies.
As the season has progressed, the ladies have gotten used to their new coaches and have adjusted to the new plays and formations that coaches Santiago Valentin, Volleyball Coach, and Chris Biddix, Algebra 2 and Geometry teacher, have made them play.
Alamo hopes to continue to improve their ability on the court both independently and as a squad as a whole for the remainder of the season. As for Coach Valentin, he enjoys the improvement the girls are making. When asked about his year coaching the team, he said, “The girls are learning. It’s a new offense 5-1 and they’re picking it up and they’re playing good,” but not everything is perfect Valentin states that the ladies can improve their speed with the ball.
According to Coach Valentin, Volleyball isn’t as popular of a sport in the Chicago area, so it is not given the same amount of recognition as the bigger sports. Valentin stated, sports suchlike “baseball, basketball, and football.” Valentin wishes to elevate the amount of recognition of the sport so there can be competition around the city.
The current goal for the coach is to get the ladies to the championship game, so go on and support your ladies in their upcoming games. As they love when they have the support of family and friends.
