The SLO High school volleyball team is set to host their first ever Division I playoff game when they take on Redwood High School Thursday night in their home gym. For the Tigers, it's a game they've been waiting to have for a long time.
For a team that’s been undefeated in league games the past three seasons, the previous two seasons have ended in first round playoff losses. To combat that from happening again, Head Coach Kennedy Meaney scheduled a grueling preseason plate that has the Tigers ready.
“The last two years we've had to travel for the first round of CIF and so all of our hard work this season, beating some of those top tier schools in the Central Section, really paid off for us.”
Some of those teams include Clovis, Frontier, Centennial and Liberty.
But even with a 25-3 overall record and a home playoff game, the Tigers aren’t overlooking Redwood who they beat earlier in the year two sets to 0, because for this year’s team, focus is everything.
“It's one game at a time and we don't rush ourselves because then we're not focused on the upcoming games,” senior Lyla Merk stated.
Meaney was an assistant back when theTigers won a CIF state title in 2018 and now she’s doing all she can to make sure this year’s team is full steam ahead for the next four weeks.
“She has this little phrase called 'on the gas,'" Merk explained. "We're fully going forward. We're only on the gas. No braking from here.”
“I just want us to leave everything out on the court every point, every rally, every game, going forward for the next four weeks," Meaney added. "That's what I keep telling my girls. We're all in every point.”
The Tigers host Redwood High School who are 31-5 on the season. The match is set to start at 6 p.m.
