Char O’Neil is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Paradise Valley for AZPreps365.com

Paradise Valley’s varsity volleyball dominated defensively on the court, but this was not enough to hold off Desert Edge.

On Thursday, the 5A Desert West Region’s No. 5 Paradise Valley varsity volleyball team fell 0-3 to No. 4 Desert Edge. The final score was 25-10, 25-20 and 25-21. 

Following the Paradise Valley loss, Trojans head coach Jessica Spencer applauded the team’s defensive performance.

“We are really good at defense, along with serving and receiving,” Spencer said. “[But] we need to work on offense.”

During the course of the game, the Trojans (unofficially) had 21 digs, the majority of which came from Eboni Thomas and Zoe Bustamante. 

Senior outside hitter Eboni Thomas spent the game in a constant state of motion. Despite this constant effort, Thomas believes she still has room to improve her diving abilities. 

“I just need to get my feet to the ball in the deep positions better,” Thomas said. “I was a little lazy; because I kept falling to get there, I could have run to the ball faster.” 

Junior libero and defensive specialist Zoe Bustamante also wants to improve her digs in order to prevent the ball from touching the ground. In order to improve, Bustamante is very accepting of the feedback from her coaches. 

“[To improve] I listened to what the coaches said, Bustamante said.” “I am always open to feedback.”

Busamante’s openness to feedback and desire to improve were spotlighted by Spencer following the game. 

“I have never seen her [Bustamante] play that well before,” Spencer said. “She was nailing her serving and receiving. Our main libero is out for injury, so Zoe took on the role.” 

The Trojans have grown as a team throughout the season, specifically in communicating with one another. This communication has helped improve their dynamic on defense. 

“We are definitely getting better at communicating,” Bustamante said. “If we did not have the communication, we would definitely fall apart.”

Thomas shares similar sentiments about communication amongst their team, holding the team together.

With the defense in a good place, it is time for the offense to improve. 

The majority of the points the Trojans gave up came from errors. In the third set, the Trojans were up 9-2 to the Scorpions, and then they had five consecutive errors, bringing the score to 9-7. These faults consisted of hitting the ball into the net or out of bounds. 

In order to build their offense, Thomas thinks the team should work on covering hitters following a big block. Thomas thinks this was a major challenge during the game. Bustamante wants practices moving forward to consist of drills that relate to “real situations.” Bustamante believes this could help develop circumstantial skills.

The team found itself getting discouraged when errors were consistently occurring. In order to bring the Trojans back together and confident in their skills, Spencer would call a timeout. 

During the timeouts, Spencer would avoid enhancing the discouragement by balancing her commentary with negatives and positives. 

“We try to educate them on what they need to fix,” Spencer said. “And motivate them to keep doing what’s working.”