The Falcons came out of the 2011 season with just one win.
Determined to turn around their history of losses, the Falcons thundered into the 2012 season. With a new coach and teammates, the Falcons came into the season strong and proceeded to emerge with an undefeated league record.“We’ve done a good job rebounding from last season,” senior setter Paras Unadkat said. “We’ve really come together as a team.”
According to junior middle-back Erik Martin, their success this year is largely due to the new coach, Daniel Lopez.
“Last year, the coach focused on a lot of conditioning, which isn’t very helpful in volleyball,” Martin said. “This year we’ve done more technical things and worked on technique and mindset, which has really helped.”
Along with a different practice routine, the new coach has brought a different attitude to the team, according to Martin.
“This year it’s been really good,” Martin said. “I think the coach helps; he’s really into pumping up the team and getting us excited in a game.”
Unadkat said the team this year was much more close-knit than those of previous years, contributing to better team communication both on and off the court.
“We’ve had a lot better team chemistry and all of us care about winning this season,” Unadkat said. “We’re all pretty good friends on the team, so we’ve had really good teamwork this year.”
Despite the loss of two key players last year, alumni Garret Huening and Brandon Pierce, Martin says that the team still managed to do well because of new talent on the team.
“Most of the seniors are stepping up this year because we lost two really good players last year,” Martin said. “We also have a really large team this year, which is not only helping us this season, but is also preparing us for the seasons to come.”
According to Martin, the team’s biggest opposition this year is Eastside College Preparatory, which has had only one loss this season. They will be playing Eastside on April 25.
However, they are confident that they will be able to become league champions in the El Camino League.
“This year, I think we have the mentality that we are going to win every game, which has contributed to our success,” senior opposite hitter James Huang said. “Last year, sometimes we felt intimidated and would not play as well as we could.”
Their improved mentality and team morale has pulled them through tough games against Wilcox High School on March 26 and Eastside on March 28.
“It took a lot of effort to defeat [Wilcox and Eastside],” Huang said.
The score against both schools show how fiercely the team has been fighting to maintain the first place title. The score against Wilcox was 25-20, 20-25, 12-25, 26-24, 9-15, with Saratoga winning by six points in the tiebreaker set. Against Eastside the score was 24-26, 25-22, 19-25, 20-25.
“Our goal as a team is to never give up and always have a ton of energy,” Huang said. “Sometimes we fall a bit short on energy, but we always come back to win the game.”
Each game is vital to their path to league champions and CCS.
“We definitely have a possibility of making it to CCS,” Martin said. “We’re probably going to be moving up [to the De Anza League] next year, but I think we’ll still be OK.”
