By Nathan Fu | Arts & Entertainment Editor

Irvington came into this game on September 29 facing Moreau which is known to be aggressive by constantly attacking the net. In addition, captain Cassie James was unable to play because of a cold. Despite this, Irvington was confident and looked loose during the warm ups.
Irvington dominated from the start, destroying Moreau by varying the strength of their volleys and finding out their opponent’s weakness early on each set.
“They made a lot of unforced errors, so we just focused on staying consistent on our strokes.” said varsity singles player Sakshi Das.
With this strategy, Moreau soon started to run out of energy as their all out and intense playing style was starting to take its toll on the Moreau players.Part of this was because of Irvington’s confidence in themselves and the way they conserved their energy wisely. Moreau often made hard and difficult volleys and while this method got them some points, it cost them their energy as the game went on.
“I played my opponent’s weakness, and I learned to always trust my strokes and myself even when I’m down in a game.” said varsity singles player Allison Cheung. “I was able to wear out the opponent much sooner before she wore me out.”
Even without their captain playing and four seniors graduating from last year, Irvington was still able to blow out Moreau, beating them 5-1. Although Irvington might not have as much “experience” as other schools, the new players are constantly practicing and improving.
“We did lose a lot of amazing players but instead of focusing on winning, we try to play our best and try to improve our skills during practices so we do well in games”
Even with this convincing win, Coach Dan Leon still believes that they can improve.
“We can always improve as the season goes on. We’re going to face American, a school we haven’t lost to since I’ve been the coach here.” said Coach Leon. “But they didn’t lose anybody from last year and like I said, I lost four players from last year.”