The Diablo Valley College women’s volleyball team suffered a frustrating 3-0 loss to the visiting Modesto Junior College Pirates on Wednesday, Oct. 1.

Despite starting the season with an overall record of 9-1, Wednesday’s loss left the Vikings with an 0-1 record in the Big 8 Conference standings.

DVC got out to a slow start early and although the team fought hard, they were unable to win a single match. At any point the Vikings came close or took the lead, Modesto would quickly counter and pull away.

It would be mental errors and communication issues that would hurt DVC throughout the entire game. Modesto scored many times on balls that were dropped due to the lack of communication.

Head coach Jacqueline Ponciano-Babb believes the game should have been played more tightly and that they gave Modesto more points than they earned.

“They were much more mentally strong than we were,” Ponciano-Babb said. “They got in our heads and it was just a roller coaster ride that didn’t end well.”

Although the game did not go as planned, the team feels as though there were some good points to take away from it. When the team was able to execute its passes and sets effectively, they were able to capitalize.

“When our passing was on, our hitting was on,” said right side hitter Amanda Jarquin.

Right side hitter Youki Bradley’s thoughts on the game are that the team could have played a lot better and that there are many things they are going to have to do to improve for their next game.

“All the mistakes we made were mental, some of us were just off tonight,” Bradley said. “We need to go all out in practice and hopefully that will transfer into game time.”

The team has not let this get their spirits down.

They continue to work as the prepare for the next games in the conference.