Sophia Orbiso, a QUEST sophomore and Olivia Smith, a QUEST senior, are your girls beach volleyball Moore League Champions! Now let’s go backwards and learn how they did this. 

On Apr. 9th and Apr.11th, the girls beach volleyball team competed in the annual Moore League tournament. This tournament decided who would go and compete in the CIF (California Interscholastic Federation) tournament, where they would play beach teams outside of the Moore League.

After the successful run for Millikan in Moore League, they sent in two pairs who competed in the first and second round of CIF on April 16th and 18th. They beat Newbury Park and West Torrance to advance to round three.

The Moore League tournament is held at Long Beach City College (LBCC) and each Moore League school sends in four duos ranked based on the player’s ability. So, the number one duo (or the ones duo) is the highest ranked of the four teams and the number four duo (or the fours duo) would be considered the lowest ranked of the pairs the school sent in). 

To win a match in the tournament you have to win best out of three sets to 21, win by two points and if the match gets to three sets, that third set would only be 15 points. Of the four teams Millikan sent in, three of the duos ultimately placed and Olivia Smith and Sophia Orbiso (Millikan’s number one duo) placed first! 

The second pair, Lila Walters, a COMPASS freshman, and Bethany Arnold, a PEACE sophomore, (Millikan’s number three duo) placed 3rd, and the third pair, Cali Tirado, a COMPASS junior, and Sophia Nygaard, a QUEST junior, (Millikan’s number two duo) placed fourth.  

Orbiso and Smith, are Millikan’s number one’s team. In the beginning of the year, Coach Kyra had everyone on the team list the people that they would most like to play with during this season (from one to three), Smith and Orbiso put each other as number one so their chemistry has only grown since then. 

 In their first match they played against Lakewood where they had an easy win, winning in two sets (21-7 and 21-6). The next game the pair played was against Poly, where the game was a little bit harder but the duo still pulled out the win in two sets (21-11 and 21-18). 

After that win, two Millikan duos met in the semi finals, Smith and Orbiso faced Tirado and Nygaard. In this game Orbiso and Smith won the match in two sets (21-17 and 21-16). After the three games that the pair won they made it to the championship game. 

Coach Kyra adds, “I expect them to give 100% effort and play for the joy of the game. I know they’ll [the team] play tough and smart and I’m so excited to see them battle!”

In the championship, Orbiso and Smith faced Wilson, who was undefeated at the time. Orbiso and Smith lost the first set 13-21 but the pair wasn’t ready to give up. Coach Kyra said, “All I can do as a coach is build up their skills and confidence and teach them how to be resilient.”

Resilient is exactly what the pair was, they won the second set in a thrilling, back and forth win (21-18). The duo was one set away from a Moore League title, in the third set, Orbiso and Smith pulled through with a 15-7 win. That means that Sophia Orbiso and Olivia Smith are the 2024 girls beach volleyball champions!  

Two of Millikan’s pairs met, Walters and Arnold played Nygaard and Tirado in a match for third place. The first set was really close, it was a 22-20 match in favor of Arnold and Walters, the next set also went to the pair. After defeating Nygaard and Tirado, Arnold and Walters earned third place. 

Since the beginning of the season Coach Kyra has continued to instill the love of the game into each and every player, the result of this is the success that the girls beach volleyball continues to see. Because of CIF, the practice group had gotten smaller, so Coach Kyra says that it is easier to be able to fine tune the skills of the girls which wasn’t possible before. The team is unfortunately out of CIF but, follow along with the future success of the girls volleyball team by following their Instagram page!