After the Southwest High Carnival in Eagle Gym on Saturday, the 2022 girls volleyball season kicks off today with two games.
Action begins when the Holtville High Vikings host the Central Union High Spartans at 6 p.m., while the Southwest Eagles have their first home game of the season at 5:30 p.m. when they host Mt. Empire Redmen.
For the two-time defending Imperial Valley League champions and 2019 CIF-San Diego Section V champion Vikings, they hope their 2022 continues to be a good one.
“We’ve been busy last winter and this spring and other than the off week, we’ve been working hard as a team,” Holtville coach Chelsey Strahm said. “Since January we’ve been in a national club program called Starling and we’ve been playing in San Diego.
Holtville has most of their players back from the Vikings’ 2021 CIF D-IV semifinalist team.
“We had all of our varsity returners and some from JV and we might add a few more,” Strahm said. “The girls have worked hard. We ended up winning the Surprise National Finals in San Diego this spring.”
The Southwest Carnival marked the debut of new Central head coach Yvanna Lopez, who along with Kristina Bird, co-coached the Spartans last season to a Desert League and CIF-San Diego Section Division V championship.
“On Saturday we played two scrimmages and it went well,” said Lopez. “We only lost one senior, but we play in the carnival to try different scenarios and understand our team in a competitive environment and see other teams.”
It will be a big week for Lopez and the Spartans as in addition to the Holtville game today, they host the Imperial Tigers at Central High on Thursday at 6 p.m.
Lopez’s Spartans are currently in CIF Division IV and want her team to play a competitive schedule.
“We played against a similar level of competition last year and that helped us in the playoffs,” Lopez said. “This season with us coming out of DV it’s more important to play the best teams we can.”
Holtville will also host a non-league game against the Imperial Valley League rival Calexico High Bulldogs on Thursday at 6 p.m. The two schools will meet again twice in IVL play later in the season.
Tomorrow night when the Brawley High Wildcats host Palo Verde High will be the first official time on the field for Brawley and recently named varsity coach Lindsay Rubin since the Wildcat varsity team did not compete in the Southwest Carnival. Rubin and the Wildcats will make their 2022 debut in a non-league game at 5 p.m., then don’t play again until the 22nd at Desert Mirage High in Thermal.
The Calipatria High Hornets are idle this week after taking on last Saturday’s Mt. Empire with the Hornets opening their season hosting Warner Springs High next week.
No schedule for Vincent Memorial Catholic High is available for August, and the school has not made any announcement about who the Scots coach will be.
