Playing a gruelingly close match against Chanhassen Oct. 15, girls’ volleyball rose to victory against Chanhassen with a final set score of 3-2.

Assistant varsity coach Sydney Griffin said that going into the game, they had set expectations.

“We knew they were going to be scrappy, so we just wanted to take care of our side of the net,” Griffin said. “We knew they would make their mistakes, we would make our mistakes, we just wanted to take care of our side.”

According to senior captain Raegan Alexander, the key to winning the match was tenacity.

“We worked together; we trusted ourselves and each other. We played with a lot of confidence,” Alexander said.

Senior Annie Holden said she was happy with the outcome of the match and likewise said that trust played a big role in that outcome.

“We did really well. When we play like we’re trusting each other and with that positive energy, it goes our way,” Holden said.

Alexander said that although she was nervous heading into the match, she was still able to focus on the game.

“I was a little nervous (going in) just because it’s our first hard game of this season, but I knew we could do it,” Alexander said. “We all just wiped away everything we had been through and put our heads down and went for it.”

According to Griffin, a key focus point when practicing for this match was passing.

“Every single day we work on passing; (it) is a huge part of the game. If we have our pass up, then we can have our middles and hitters involved,” Griffin said.

According to Holden, another big part of their practices involves playing hard regardless of the score.

“We have been working a lot on not paying attention to the score, so we can come back from anything. We practice a lot (in scenarios) where we’re down, so the score will be 15-20. We don’t let that phase us,” Holden said.

The next girls’ volleyball game is at 7 p.m. Oct. 20 against Wayzata at Wayzata High School.