Varsity Boys Volleyball lost to Los Gatos High School 3-2 on Friday, May 1, on its senior night and last league game of the season. The first set was hard-fought, with MVHS maintaining a consistent lead and ultimately winning 26-24.
In the second set, LGHS jumped to an early lead of 5-0, but MVHS fought back and trailed 20-16. Ultimately, LGHS pushed back into the lead and won the set 25-21. MVHS then came back stronger in the third set with a 13-6 lead, eventually winning the set 25-13. However, both teams found themselves 14-14 in the 4th set, with MVHS eventually losing 25-22.
With both teams 2-2, the match went to a tiebreaker round. MVHS pulled ahead with a lead of 5-0, but lost momentum as LGHS came back and tied the match 9-9. LGHS carried this momentum and won 15-13, taking the game.
Senior and defensive specialist Rocco Ling says that although the team ultimately lost, he was proud of how MVHS continued to battle throughout the match. Ling says the team was able to apply pressure on LGHS’ serve receive, which prevented them from running its offense as smoothly.
“We did best on definitely applying pressure on serves,” Ling said. “They weren’t able to get good passes to set the middle, and that made it hard for them to get a kill.”
Ling says the match was important because it affects MVHS’ seeding for CCS playoffs. According to Ling, the loss means the Matadors will likely face a more difficult playoff path, as a lower seed may force them to play stronger teams away from home. Despite this pressure, Ling says the team remained motivated and focused throughout the match.
“This game is really important in deciding our seeding for playoffs,” Ling said. “We have to win out every single game, basically, and even though we wanted to really win this game, that’s what kept us locked in.”
Assistant Coach Rithma Patel says the team’s third-set win displays what MVHS is capable of when players are energetic, connected and playing cleanly. However, Patel says the team was unable to maintain that level throughout the match, especially against a LGHS team that extended rallies and forced MVHS to stay disciplined.
“They had bursts of who they truly are, but I think overall, could have definitely been a lot better,” Patel said. “Los Gatos played really well. They were a very scrappy team. They always managed to send the ball back.”
Defensive specialist, libero and sophomore Finn Ancheta agrees with Patel that the team showed strong energy at certain points but struggled to maintain that level consistently. Ancheta says MVHS was able to come back from deep deficits, but the team’s errors and missed serves made it difficult to fully capitalize on its momentum.
“I think our team did well on just coming back from deep deficits, but we weren’t able to capitalize on that,” Ancheta said. “I think we’ve got to fix that by just having a constant rate of being really high energy and also having high efficiency on the court.”
