With an up-and-down start following an offseason coaching change, the Phoenix Christian Cougar volleyball team faces a huge test in its second league game of the young season.

The 6-6 Cougars take on the 8-3 Chandler Prep Titans on Tuesday at Phoenix Christian High School. The Titans won the 2A Valley League last season and finished with a 10-0 record in league play. In each of the three matches the teams played each other, the Titans swept the Cougars in straight sets.

A big difference for the Cougars between this season and last is the coaching position. After a second consecutive losing season under head coach Terry Sutter, Phoenix Christian brought in Amanda Lopez and her father, Rosario Lopez, to lead the team to victory. Both coached for the successful Arizona Saguaros Volleyball Club in Phoenix.

The coaches were brought in by the school to not only win but help make the girls better people off the court. The coaches are doing this by playing motivational speeches on a speaker while the team has warmups. Another way the coaches are trying to make the girls better people is by helping them get to college, whether through volleyball or not. 

Amanda Lopez is the head coach of all three levels at Phoenix Christian. She played volleyball in college and has coached since retiring from playing. Rosario Lopez is the assistant coach and has had an illustrious coaching career which includes coaching professionally and for a junior U.S. national team.

While the coaches changed, the Cougars did return eight of 14 players from last year’s team. This includes the captains, senior Atlantis Jamerson and junior Ainsley Ebert.

“When [the new coaches] came in they came with a whole new intensity," Ebert said. "We had to match their intensity, which has brought up our game to a whole different level.”

Their first league match resulted in a loss Tuesday against the Leading Edge Academy Spartans. The Cougars lost the first set, 14-25, before taking the second, 25-21. However, the Spartans finished the job taking the next two sets, 22-25 and 21-25. Assistant coach Rosario Lopez appeared pleased with the team’s performance, but preached the message, “Don’t try and be good, but be great,” to the team at practice Wednesday.

Jamerson agreed with Rosario Lopez’s message, as she believes that one aspect that the Cougars need to improve on is, “Pushing at those very last points when you want to win, and not just going through the motions.”

With new coaches coming in, the team has had to adapt to a new ideology that the team is to work as a community. This includes not only the varsity team but also the junior varsity and c-team working together as one. At practices this is shown by representatives from each of the levels coming together to help someone if they are struggling. Unlike many teams at other schools, all three teams practice together, therefore strengthening this sense of community.

Within the community, communication amongst the players is an area that the coaches are emphasizing.

“Communication throughout the team really needs to improve,” Ebert said.

Amanda Lopez also noticed that the Cougars need to work on another area of their game.

“Receiving of serve is something we need to improve on,” she said. “We definitely have our peaks with that, where we are very strong. But then we go up against a really strong server and we sort of unravel.” 

The Cougars have had 29 return errors through the first 12 games.

The Cougars are led on the offensive end by Jamerson, who leads the team in kills with 36 and is second in aces with 14 -- only behind junior Cassidy Clifford, who has 18 aces on the season. Defensively, Jamerson and Ebert stand in the way with 12 and 11 blocks, respectively.

The Titans are led on offense by juniors Olivia Cadien (91 kills) and Evi Yates (71 kills). Yates also leads the way on defense with 24 blocks.

Despite struggling greatly last season against Chandler Prep, the Cougars are not worried about the tough task ahead of them. This game is being looked at by the Cougars as a good chance to gain momentum to make a push toward the ultimate goal of making the playoffs.