Posted: Apr 20, 2020
Friday, April 17, 2020. That was the originally-scheduled date for the final home match for six West Valley beach volleyball sophomores.
The match against arch-rival Cabrillo would possibly have had conference championship and NorCal playoff ramifications. It also would have been a day to celebrate six student athletes playing for the final time on Viking sand.
Audrey Fernandez, Jenna Gomes, Kayla Keller, Emily Paxton, Hannah Reynoso and Rene Wash were a combined 11-1 against community college competition in 2020. Fernandez and Paxton teamed up at the 3's to go 4-0, as did Wash and Jaida Ward at the 2's. Viking 1's Keller and Reynoso went 3-1, while Gomes, sidelined by a concussion, had yet to hit the sand.
All six sophs were members of the 2019 Coast Conference beach champions, the 2018 indoor state fifth-place squad and the 2019 indoor Coast champions.
While the immediate future is uncertain, the contributions of six program-defining women to Viking Volley will always be a part of the past.
