For the first time in over twenty years, the Canyon Girls Volleyball team successfully made it to the CIF Playoffs, and with their win against Valencia on Saturday, Nov. 2, they also made it to the finals!

This sudden success did not come out of nowhere, though; the varsity coach has been playing the team hard, Emory Crawford, an opposite on the team, explained.

“We’ve been doing a lot of fast-paced drills for both our offense and our defense. The change is really just specific on the speed. We’re going faster and faster to make sure we don’t make silly mistakes,” said Crawford.

Crawford also shared the team’s biggest struggle this season—which they overcame with much hard work: “Going against Valencia during our league was a big challenge for us. They’re really fast paced and set in…uncomfortable places; it was hard to adjust, especially since they didn’t make a lot of errors. We also made a lot of unforced errors, since their skill matches ours. We unfortunately let them get into our heads.”

The dedication and commitment the team has is obvious, and the chemistry between players—especially those who have been playing together for more than a couple years—definitely helps them to obtain such great wins.

Their first finals game was on Saturday, Nov. 9, against the Corona High School Girls Volleyball team. The game went to 5 sets, but unfortunately, our girls lost with a devastatingly close score of 15-9.

Fortunately, they were still on track for states. The girls fought hard but could not pull off the win against El Capitan High School on Nov. 12. Despite the very close losses, the girls put in their best effort and made Canyon history, which very clearly showed.

Good luck next season, Emory, and good luck to the rest of our Cowboys!