Piedmont High School’s girls volleyball team suffered a close loss to visiting Urban-San Francisco in the first round of North Coast Section Division 4 playoffs. on Oct. 29, 25-23, 15-25, 26-24, 24-26, 16-14.
The teams had played in the regular season with Piedmont pulling out a 31-29, 25-23, 24-26, 25-9 win at Urban on Sept. 9.
The Highlanders were playing their first NCS playoff match since 2018 and finished the season 9-12.
Sophomore setter Allyson Huynh said that it was a very intense game. “Everyone in the gym could feel the nerves, and it was a very competitive and well matched team we were playing,” she said. “Ultimately, we pushed very hard, but couldn’t execute at the end.
“No one really had the lead for a long time. We had match point, and then we lost a point, and they won the last two points with unforced errors. It kind of sucks to see we left that game on our errors, but I’m really proud of how we played.”
Senior outside hitter Stella Wilk said that every single point was a fight. “Everyone really played for each other in this game knowing that it could be one of our last ones, but in the end there were some miscommunications,” she said.
Huynh said that sophomore middle blocker Izara Dando played incredibly well. With a very young team, with lots of new middle schoolers coming in next year, Huynh said Piedmont has a very strong foundation for volleyball to be successful in the years to come.