The way first-year coach Andres Cuevas sees it, the Patagonia High School volleyball team is lacking one key ingredient to compete against the top Class 1A schools in the state.
Confidence.
“We have improved,” Cuevas said. “Our weakest point is about our mind set. I don’t think the ladies have any problems in tactical and technical skills; it’s about emotions. When they see some team with high-quality spikers, it’s like they’re going down.
“We are getting intimidated by the bigger teams.”
The Lobos won five of their first six games, but once the schedule got tougher, the victories have been harder to come by. They entered October with a 6-4 record after a heartbreaking 3-2 loss at The Gregory School on Sept. 27. They had won the first two sets 27-25, 25-16 but were unable to close out the victory, losing when Gregory took the final set by a 15-7 score to improve its record to 9-1.
The loss to Gregory capped a stretch of four games over nine days, with the Lobos defeating Valley Union 3-0 but losing by 3-0 scores to a pair of Arizona’s top 1A teams: St. David (7-1) and North Phoenix Prep (6-2).
Co-captains Alexis Fimbres and Brianna Majalca agreed with their coach’s assessment of the first half of the season.
“I think we have a really good team,” said Fimbres, the team’s only senior and top middle blocker. “We can go far if we really put our mind to it and keep our attitude up and not down. I don’t know why exactly, but when we get behind, it’s like we think we’re going to lose.”
Majalca, a junior who leads the Lobos in kills, offered much the same critique.
“That’s a big obstacle for us – our confidence and sometimes our energy,” she said. “For example, against Valley Union, that was an amazing game. Our confidence and our energy were very high. We got there, we played our game, and we won.”
With such a young roster, there’s still room for improvement. Cuevas has mixed freshmen Monique Snell and Marion Koloto into the rotation along with Fimbres, Majalca, juniors Emma Lewton, Ximena Gonzalez and Lulu Donnelly, and sophomore setter Amaya Somoza.
The Lobos played just three of their first 10 games on their home court, but they finish by playing seven of their final nine at home – starting Oct. 8 against Baboquivari and the Oct. 9 homecoming game vs. San Simon. They also have an Oct. 16 rematch with St. David that will tell Cuevas a lot about the team’s development.
“We are going to see if we are growing our game physically and mentally,” he said. “We can do it, if we get back to our style of game.”