Girls’ volleyball, 30-4 overall, looks forward to hosting the Fairfax Lions, 2-16 overall, on Senior Night Monday at 4:30.

The Gondoliers will prepare for the Lions like any other team they’ve gone against. “We’re always preparing for every kind of opponent in the same kind of way,” said coach Raul Aviles.

With Senior Night marking the end of the regular season as well as the transition to playoffs, the Gondoliers are ready.

“We came into this season with a target on our backs as the number one seed, and staying consistent is really impressive with us being 30-4,” said senior Kaylee Nakagawa, a captain with senior Pauline Lao.

The Gondoliers will continue to defend their number one seed in Open Division.
“The top teams are probably already set: Venice, Taft, Palisades. Granada Hills, El Camino and some other valley schools,” said Nakagawa.

Aviles emphasizes the efforts and the contributions of the senior class. “The impact seniors have on this program can never be understated.”

The starters of the team mainly consist of seniors leading the way.

“We haven’t had this large of a senior class since we won the Open Division championship in
2021,” said Nakagawa.

Aviles acknowledges seniors Meadow Decena, Emi Cheng, Katie Campbell, Yuna Schirano, Amiekal Looney, Savannah Rozell, Pauline Lao, Mana Inoue, Adelaide Groff, and Kaylee Nakagawa for their contribution to the success of the team.

Nakagawa emphasizes that the team has more than demonstrated that they deserve to be the number one seed in the open division.

“Not all teams can walk the walk, they just talk the talk,” she said.

Four years after winning their first Open Division championship, Nakagawa believes “doing it again would be
super impressive.”

The Gondoliers are currently undefeated in the western league, being 10-0. On October 2, the Gondos beat their all-time rivals, the Palisades Dolphins, 23-10 overall, in a close 3-2 match.

“The way we did it, was both pretty great and a little rough,”Aviles said.

His philosophy is that if he teaches the Gondos properly during the week, that they will be able to figure things out by themselves. The Gondos were down 1-2, but got themselves out of the rut.

“Not only was that the turning point, but that was incredible to see as a coach seeing the team get themselves out of a bad situation on their own,” he said.