With the MVHS Boys Volleyball’s legacy reaching its peak with their win at the Norcal Championship last year, this years seniors tried to close out their final regular season with a bang. MVHS hasn’t lost a home game for the past two years. But on their senior night and last home league game, the team almost lost this streak.

Before the match, players were honored with rhyming poems written about them from their coach Paul Chiu. After all the group photos, family embraces and poster exchanges, the game was underway.

Because the team was aware that Harker HS is one of the better teams in the league, they made sure they knew what to expect from their playing style.

“We knew that they like to do a lot of ‘dirty plays’ because they like to tip a lot,” Dasari explained. “They’re not the most conventional team, so obviously we had to have guys cheat up a little bit to make sure we can pick up on those those tips they send over.”

With the team fully aware of Harker’s strategy, senior Nikhil Bapat explained how they practiced to combat this style of play, and the key plays the team had to focus on during the game.

“A good portion of it was as long as we took care of the silly errors on our side we’d be able to beat them that way,” Bapat said. “We did some preparation blocking wise because they’re known for tipping a lot. We worked on defending against that, and I think we did a pretty good job on defense.”

As the game continued, each set was fought hard with both teams fighting to retake the lead. But in the end, MVHS was able to edge out in each of the sets. In three consecutive sets, MVHS was able to beat the biggest competition in their league. With a score of 25-20 in the first set, 25-22 in the second set and 25-19 in the third set.

The way the crowd roared for every explosive play from the Matadors made all the points that were lost seemed like trivial bumps in the road.  Dasari shared what his opinion from being an on-court spectator.

“There’s certain plays that are just ‘wow,’ like I’m just surprised,” Dasari explained. “Brandon will make some crazy play, Nikhil will get some volleys and hit it right over someone. Some of those plays, they’re just very promising for the future to see we can go so much further.”

As the team prepares for their CCS run, Dasari cannot help but reflect on his high school volleyball career, and  explains the bond he’s created with his teammates over the years is truly very unique and valuable.

“I am definitely going to miss the camaraderie on and off the court,” Dasari said. “We’re just such a tight knit group of guys. We have a lot of fun, we clown around a lot, all our antics on the bench, but it’s just all that little stuff. If I’m playing in college I’m not going to see that in college. People take it super seriously, [but] we have a very good mixture of fun and like hard work, which I don’t think you’ll find in a lot of places.”

Click below to see pictures of the ceremony and game.