Varsity Boys Volleyball fell to Los Gatos High School 3-0 on Friday, April 4. The Matadors fought consistently in all 3 sets, scoring 25-19 and 25-18 in the first two sets. The team began the third set off strong with a 6-1 lead, but after a LGHS time out, the set finished 25-21 in favor of LGHS.
Coming into the match, senior and middle blocker Talus Leong expected a competitive game as the team hoped to take the match to five sets. Despite the loss, he still says the team’s overall performance was relatively strong.
“I thought the game went pretty well,” Leong said. “Our libero’s condition deteriorated so we had to trade some offensive power to compensate for our lacking defense, which was pretty unlucky. We had good offensive plays and some great serving runs, which is good to see.”
Senior and outside hitter Praneel Shah was more critical of the team’s performance. He specifically acknowledged the need for everyone to work on their individual skills and learn to more effectively implement instructions given to them by the coach..
“It wasn’t the best game that we’ve played because of a lot of people playing new positions due to several players being out sick,” Shah said. “Everybody in the starting lineup is playing something new, including me. I’m a senior and this is the first time I’m playing outside. We have two freshmen starting as well so we’re trying to navigate and have energy to score points even when we’re down in sets. Our lack of togetherness as a team kind of showed today.”
Both Shah and Leong noticed that they began the game with a lot more energy compared to previous games, which helped them continue to fight in each set. Leong attributed the team’s lack of energy due to it being an away game with fewer MVHS students in the stands.
“Our between-set talks were mostly to rally the team and keep energy going since our energy seemed to be fading off in the last set,” Leong said. “It really helped that Rajas and Rithvik, our alumni, were there to help motivate us, but it’s something that we’ve been working on throughout the season.”
Looking forward to the rest of the season, Leong continues to have a positive outlook and expectations for the team.
“Our team is looking pretty good, despite the losses,” Leong said. “There are definitely areas of improvement but those exist for every team, and it’s stuff we’ve been working on in practice. We can contest most of the teams in our league — we just need a little bit more discipline and experience working with various rotations and lineups.”
