Over Halloween weekend, Archer’s Varsity Volleyball team took first place in Brentwood’s annual invitational tournament. The team competed for the championship title against Brentwood School and won for the first time in Archer history. 

Archer won the tournament in two sets, 25-19 and 25-21.

Senior and Co-Captain Christian Luhnow was named All-Tournament MVP and Clara Gasparetti ’17 made the All-Tournament Team.

When the Oracle met with Captains Luhnow and Sophie Smyth ’17 at the beginning of the season, their goals for the year were to win both the Milken and Brentwood tournaments.

“We were confident about Milken because we won it last year, but Brentwood — we’ve never beaten Brentwood — and so we obviously never won that tournament, and so we had an amazing weekend,” Head Coach Jonathan Lotz said.

On Monday, Nov. 2, the Archer community gathered at Santa Monica College for Senior Night to honor Luhnow and to cheer on the Panthers as they played against long-time rivals Pacifica Christian in the Liberty League Championships.

“I felt so special, I was happy about it, but I was also sad because I knew that it was the last home game and that the season was coming to an end. It was an amazing feeling having so many Archer fans in the crowd to support us,” Luhnow said.

Although Pacifica Christian won the match in three sets, Archer’s undefeated record prior to the championship game at 6-0 led the Panthers to automatically take the title, since Pacifica Christian held a 5-2 record.

“I think we just sort of got caught up in a let-down spot here and credit to Pacifica because they worked their butts off and they earned the win,” Lotz said.

“Even though it was a bummer that we lost, I was so proud of my team and I knew everyone that came out to support was proud as well. Winning league was so rewarding because all of our hard work and sacrifices paid off. I couldn’t be prouder to be a part of such an amazing group of girls,” Luhnow said.

“I just want us to play to our fullest potential that I know that we can. High school volleyball has a lot of ups and downs and we’re just trying to smooth it out and play as well as we possibly can. Hopefully in the playoffs we make a deep run,” Lotz said.

Round one of CIF playoffs commenced on Tuesday, Nov. 10. The Varsity team won in a clean sweep in three sets against Yucca Valley, 25-10, 25-8, 25-4.

The team is set to play on Thursday, Nov. 10 in round two. The opposing team is to be determined.