After celebrating the seven seniors on the team on senior night on April 30 against Wilcox, which ended in a 3-0 loss, the volleyball team competed fiercely in their last three matches of the season, all on the road.
Ultimately, they lost all three, with a 3-0 loss against Mountain View on May 7, a 3-1 loss against Gunn on May 5, and a 3-2 loss against Fremont on May 2.
Despite strong performances by individuals on the team, who were still adjusting to a 6-2 rotation, where the team works with two setters — sophomore Lawrence He and freshman Owen Su — instead of one, the Falcons struggled to achieve consistency during sets, contributing to a lackluster record.
With a 1-14 record, the team finished in sixth in the El Camino Division. Their only win was a 3-2 victory against Fremont on March 28.
But players say their losing record does little to reflect the extremely close matches that the team played. On May 2, the Falcons were up 2-1 against Fremont before losing the fourth set. In the fifth set, both teams hustled intensely but the Falcons ultimately dropped the set 21-19. In another match against Gunn on April 28, the Falcons were initially up 2-0 before giving up two sets and narrowly losing the last set 16-14 after reaching deuce. Other matches proceeded in a similar fashion.
“Even though we lost lots of matches, we got lots of good things out of these losses,” sophomore opposite hitter Anson Hulme said.
Each loss tracked closely with the energy both the players on the court and the bench brought. When the energy was high, the team gained momentum and went on runs, but right when the opposing team went on a run, the energy seemed to dissipate and the players lost momentum.
Top scorers for the team included junior outside hitter Jeremy Si, senior middle Ryan Backhus, and Hulme, who were all able to capitalize on consistent sets from He and Su. The team has also had a strong defense thanks to strong digs by freshman libero Allen Huang.
“We needed to keep our energy up even when the other team scored five or six points in a row,” sophomore middle Ahmed Abdalla said. “Going on our own runs was important in the game but recovering after the other team goes on a run is even more important.”
Video by Richard Fan
Falcons score a point after a jump serve by junior Jeremy Si.
Head coach Lori Gragnola emphasized the role energy played on the court.
“This year, our team relies heavily on effort,” she said. “If a player gives 1000% on the court, it helps us tremendously but when they fail to bring up their energy, there will always be another player willing to step up in that role.”
Looking forward to next season, the team is still very young, with most of the main core players still yet to graduate. Even with the loss of seven seniors — Backhus, defensive specialist Andy Zhu, outside hitter Steven Ning, defensive specialist Justin Choi, middle Saatvik Kommareddi, middle Vivaan Suri and defensive specialist Shaan Janardhan — the team looks forward to competing with the same teams they struggled to beat this past season.
“Our team can compete with every single team in our league,” said He, who will be a junior next year. “We need to fully lock in and focus on every detail in order to win games next season and not repeat the mistakes from this past season.”
