On Friday, March 29, the MVHS boys volleyball team defeated Los Altos HS 3-0, winning every set by at least seven points. Junior and setter William Liou describes the game as easy and effortless, especially since the team had turned towards a strategy of keeping things simple instead of running complex plays. For Liou, it was important to let LAHS make its own mistakes in order to avoid an unnecessarily close match.

“You need to understand your matchups and to not do too much,” Liou said. “I’ve seen teams who try new plays, and that results in really close matches [which] really should not be the case. So if you just lay back and let the other team make the mistakes, then it becomes an easy game.”

Despite the win, junior and opposite hitter Elvis Lang was unsatisfied with his team’s performance. Lang acknowledges that the lack of effort may be due to what he says was the poorer skill level of the opposing team — however he expects a better performance due to what the team is capable of.  

“I don’t think we played at our best given the lineup that we had,” Lang said. “I felt like a lot of us had a lot more potential, and we could have definitely put in a lot more effort. I don’t think we really did as well as I know we can do.”

Lang is proud of the team for maintaining a consistent energy level, as well as minimizing errors in hitting or serving, which are also his pet peeves.

“A lot of times you get bored during the third set, and your game just flops and you won’t take it that seriously,” Lang said. “I think we still kept our effort the same level throughout the three sets.”

Liou believes that while the game against LAHS may have been an easy win, the strategy MVHS used is representative of sports at a professional level.

“[In] any sport in general, when you get to a high enough level, it’s all about who makes the least amount of mistakes,” Liou said. “A team like this, a high school team, [everyone’s] always looking out for each other and making each other better.”