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!
Chloe Covill • May 22, 2024 at 12:57 pm
Dear Corydon Editor,
On May 16, 2024, an article titled “Girls Beach Volleyball Moore League Champs” was published. This article intrigued me right away because I did not know that Millikan had a beach volleyball team.
I enjoyed not only the pictures of the team and duos placed throughout the article, but the detail and description of the game itself. The author specified how many points and sets had to be won by each competing duo in order to win a match, which was helpful considering some audiences may not know how the game works. It was also interesting hearing about Millikan’s own players and how each pair of them placed during Moore League. The author also did an excellent job of summarizing that Millikan placed first, third, and fourth in Moore League finals.
In addition, including quotes from the team’s coach highlighted the excitement of the sport, and attaching a link to the team’s instagram was a good idea as it gives anyone interested in learning more about the team a resource to do so. Overall, I think this article was a wonderful way to highlight one of the many interesting sports at Millikan, and the highly illustrative and enthusiastic tone of the author made for a not only informative, but also captivating article.
Sophia Nygaard • May 22, 2024 at 10:15 am
On May 6, 2024, Ian Henriquez wrote an article titled “The Small Businesses of Millikan ”. The start of the article providing a point of view on the start of the small business craze is a nice introduction on this new phenomena. As it provides a common thought of boredom in the covid pandemic and the creativity of the time to bloom into the small businesses. A pointer I would suggest is getting a perspective from a small business owner on if the height of covid was the start for them. Also the influence of different businesses ranging from sophomores to seniors in different pathways provides a different kind of contrast with different backgrounds and inspirations combining to form alike creativity in the form of business. The influence of statements from the business owners and their experiences balancing school and businesses. Something you could add could be an interview of people in general and ask them their perspectives on small businesses. Plus a question if they would be tp for starting their own small business and what it would be on and why. Overall a great article highlighting an outburst of creativity in a time of darkness.
Emma Buth • May 20, 2024 at 1:40 pm
May 20, 2024
Dear Corydon Editor,
On May 16, 2024, there was an article titled “Girls Beach Volleyball Moore League Champs”. This article does a great job of explaining how the Moore League Volleyball tournament works as well as who the winners were of the tournament. Sophomore Sophia Orbiso and Senior Olivia Smith were the two winners representing Millikan High School. These two competed in the annual Moore League tournament and even advanced to CIF where they competed against other schools that are outside of the Moore League district. They competed against Newbury Park and West Torrance as they beat both of those teams and advanced to round 3 of CIF. Going back to the Moore League tournament, they beat Lakewood in an easy win and continued to beat their other rival moore league teams. That’s when it came to the game against Wilson who was undefeated. Although this duo beat that streak and took the Moore League title for 2024.
Sincerely,
Emma Buth