Varsity Boys Volleyball fell to The Harker School 3-0 on Friday, March 28, despite having close scores in all three sets. The Matadors put up a strong fight throughout the game, improving their deficit of 25-18 in the first set to 25-21 in the second set. However, they were unable to maintain their upward momentum and fell to THS 25-17 in the final set.
During the first set, the Matadors were neck and neck with THS until the score hit 14-16. After a series of aces and kills from THS, THS pulled ahead, improving their score to 21-16. The Matadors’ struggle with serve-receive ultimately caused them to lose the first set. According to junior and middle blocker Pratham Kannan, the Matadors’ blocking was ineffective as their opponents hit the ball between their hands, and their passing was inconsistent, leading to a loss of crucial points for the Matadors.
“I feel like we challenged their blocking, and we just swung hard at their hands,” Kannan said. “One of our biggest problems is passing. They were easy serves, but we just shanked every ball. Another flaw was our blocking. They just swung where our hands were not taking space.”
The Matadors improved during the second set, remaining close with THS until the score was 16-16. However, the Matadors couldn’t keep their momentum and lost 25-21. Similar to their previous game, Head Coach Paul Chiu noted that the team faced setbacks due to sickness and adjusted their playing style accordingly.
“We’re missing two starters, so it made it a little challenging for us,” Chiu said. “The kids played hard, but we have breakdowns in serve-receive that we’ve been working on all year. We’re just going to have to do a better job in practice to see if we can eliminate this breakdown — not necessarily eliminate, they’re going to happen — but reduce the frequency of it.”
In the third set, THS secured an early lead and maintained it through the set, making it difficult for the Matadors to catch up. They closed the gap to five points as the score reached 18-13, but lost their momentum as the score inched to 22-15. The Matadors fought for points in the end but were ultimately unable to catch up, losing 25-17.
Senior and middle blocker Talus Leong echoes both Chiu and Kannan, pointing out potential for improvement in both serve-receive and blocking. Despite challenges in these aspects, Leong praises his team for their excellent hits and saves.
“We’re looking to just turn it around,” Leong said. “We’ve played most of the teams once already, so we know what we’re looking at. All of these games are definitely winnable, we just need to put in the work and get there.”
