New season, new start:The volleyball team sets high goals

On March 14, the boys’ volleyball team played its first league game at Santa Clara High School and unlike last year, they started their season with a bang, winning their game in three sets.

Last year, the team ended with a dismal record of 0-12, placing last in the De Anza league. To top it off, the team lost two key players, ‘11 graduates Brandon Pierce and Garrett Huening.

Despite these setbacks, the team is even more determined as they face lower level teams in the El Camino Division.

“We all made pledges to be more active on the court and be better team players this season,” libero sophomore Justin Liu said.

Liu is new to the team this year, but former team members are also working out the holes in their playing style as they adjust to the new team.

“We’re all familiar with each other,” said senior captain Brandon Pak, who plays the position of the main setter. “But we’re still working on playing with each other and finding the right fits.”

The team has done remarkably well in cooperating with each other despite the short time that they have been able to practice properly.

“We only got two days of practice with our whole team before our first game this season, so we’re still working on our team chemistry,” Pak said.

Additionally, the team has a new coach, Daniel Lopez, who was the JV boys volleyball coach for two years before.

“He is focused and committed to ensure that the team is successful … he is more calm and relaxed in his coach,” defense specialist, senior Alex Amato said. “He is also more focused on the technical elements of volleyball, which has helped the team.”

Other team members have also risen to the challenge of filling the footsteps left by the previous seniors.

Seniors James Huang plays as an outside hitter, junior Arjay Parhar plays as a opposite hitter, seniors Stanley Ho and Erik Martin play as middle hitters and Pak plays as both a opposite hitter and a setter.

Regardless of the changes, the team rose to the challenge, despite having so little time to practice rotations and discuss strategy, and accomplished on their very first try, what they had unable to do last year: secure a win.

“We played a solid game and played well together as a team,” Amato said. “We played well and it was exciting to get a win.”

However, Pak believes that the team could have performed even better by playing with their true skill level.

“We lowered our level of playing to theirs, but it was still a good win for our team,” Pak said.
The key strategies that the team plans on using this year are to play smart and to use the opposing team’s weakness to their advantage.

With these strategies, the team hopes that they will be able to win league and reach CCS.

Their goal may not be far off. The team has played two season games and has won both of them, defeating Sacred Heart Prep on March 16 in three straight games, 25-19, 26-24, and 25-18.

However, the team will need to strive even harder to play to the level of the De Anza division schools.

On March 9, they lost to Lynbrook High School in three sets, 25-14, 25-23 and 26-24.