Varsity Boys Volleyball fell to Lynbrook High School 3-1 on Wednesday, April 2, dropping the Matadors to 5th place in the SCVAL De Anza League. The Matadors had a slow start, ending the first set with a 25-17 loss due to inconsistency in the serve-receive. Though the team picked up momentum with a second set win of 25-22, the LHS defense overpowered the Matadors, allowing the Vikings to win the following two sets 25-19 and 25-22 respectively.
Although the Matadors also lost to LHS in their first matchup on March 19, the team saw improvements in its gameplay, particularly in making more aggressive swings and serves to keep the game neck-and-neck for the majority of the sets. However, senior, captain and outside hitter Praneel Shah attributes the team’s loss to its inability to adapt to LHS’ strong defense.
“We were getting blocked a lot, and we were not able to work around the block that they were setting up,” Shah said. “As a result, we got stuffed in a lot of ways and we lost a lot of fights.”
Furthermore, junior and middle blocker Pratham Kannan notes that the team’s defense and passes were the two factors that impacted the outcome of the game. As the team prepares for the remainder of their league matches, Kannan hopes he and the rest of the team can improve on their serve receive and defense by focusing on additional repetitions at practices.
“We’ll have to go out to practice tomorrow and work on the small things,” Kannan said. “We definitely have the skills to be competitive in the game. It’s just, ‘Can we convert those points in the clutch?’”
Additionally, Kannan emphasizes the need to express energy consistently throughout the game in order to put points on the board and bring home a win. As the season progresses, he hopes that the team can build a stronger camaraderie in order to elicit energy during games.
“As a team, we just have to be more cohesive,” Kannan said. “Another issue was that we were looking down a lot, and we weren’t getting hype. To win points, we have to get up, get together, huddle and show that energy.”
