San Jose City College women’s volleyball continued to lose Wednesday against the San Mateo women’s volleyball team in their first conference game at home.

On Wednesday night, SJCC hosted San Mateo in their first volleyball conference match of the 2025–2026 season. They lost 0–3 or 14–25, 11–25, and 10–25, which seems to make people wonder if the Lady Jaguars will end their 18-game losing streak or if these unfortunate results will continue.

“Even though they lose a lot of points, they are proud of how hard they are pushing,” says Kendra Valencia, a member of the SJCC volleyball team.

 “They strive till the end.” “She believes that while they play more freely in practice, they are being held back in the games.” She adds, “everyone (the players) talks about having a lot of grit and having accountability on the mistakes they make during games and practices and moving on after a tough loss.”  

One of the biggest problems the team is constantly having, according to Jasleen Tomasetti, a player for the SJCCC college volleyball team, is” coming together as a unit because some members are more skilled and experienced than others”. Additionally, she believes that “the females on the team maintain a positive outlook on individual disappointments by having stronger ties to everyone, such as accountability and support from the very beginning”.

“They are focusing on defense and are struggling in practice, but they are also focused on mental health and the coach is more understanding,” both Kendra Valencia and Jasleen Tomasetti add.

Making sure that their players are performing well is the most important thing a coach can do, especially after a losing streak. “Even though he has some vocal leaders, it is difficult for everyone to put up with this losing streak, but everyone is trying to stand up and hold each other accountable,” says David Stanton, the volleyball coach at SJCC. He also explains that he is “ensuring that the team still believes they can win because, as a coach, you believe in them, telling them they can still win and not let these losses define them and highlighting the positives.”  

“The experience of going through something difficult makes people better, and going through it as a group is better as well,” he has informed his players, adding that “the next season or next game will be a learning lesson.”

By ignoring the previous games since the first week of August, the SJCC women’s volleyball season can avoid being defined by this losing streak. However, people learn important life lessons from losses, and as a result, the season gets easier toward its end.