Thomas Forbes is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Mountain View High School for AZPreps365.com

The Mountain View Toros volleyball team is looking to stay determined and continue working hard to have a successful season despite the tough schedule and young team this year.

Even though the team had a rough start to the season, athletic director Joe Goodman is confident that the Toros “are a playoff-bound team.” Goodman has faith in Tim Church, who was hired as the new head coach. Church came from Saguaro High School and is in his first year at Mountain View.

Through five games, Mountain View is 0-5 in conference play. The strong teams it was up against were Sandra Day O’Connor, Liberty, Queen Creek, Perry and Xavier Prep.

Goodman is not worried about the 0-5 start. “We want to challenge them,” he said. “We’ve asked for tougher games because we want to push our program to be the best and that is the only way to do that.”

“The goal is to be playing our best ball and see what happens during the playoffs,” Church said.

Mountain View will play the regular season until late October and will try to take it one game at a time to go for its playoff push with its game-by-game strategy.

Having a solid defense and communicating are important for this young Mountain View team that relies heavily on sophomores and juniors. After every point during a game, each player picks each other up whether they win the point or not.

Julia Freeman is one of only a few seniors on the team who helps her younger teammates stay vocal. “Coming into a circle and talking after every single play is a great way to make sure we’re all on the same page,” Freeman said.

“This is a very new lineup compared to last year,” junior Jordyn Decker said. “So, we remind each other to keep being vocal because any type of communication will help us.”

“We’re really young and have a really high ceiling of potential,” Decker added. “We obviously haven’t hit that yet.”

During the course of a match, plays can get hectic, and it can be very easy to break down mentally and stop communicating because it’s natural in a stressful situation like a volleyball match. Decker takes the leadership role in making sure the team is focused. “Helping the younger girls on the team feel confident and have each other’s back on the court is important,” Decker said.

After the loss against Xavier Prep on Wednesday, Mountain View plans to reassemble itself over the weekend before three tough games against Corona del Sol, Dobson and Mesa on back-to-back days. Church planned practice for the weekend with an off day to make sure the team is rested before the three-game week coming up.

“Playing with energy, not getting down and not getting down on ourselves is key to our game,” Church said. “We need to keep competing for every point.”