Team looks to repeat last season’s success

With a 10-2 overall record and 4-1 league record as March 28, the Falcons are currently ranked second for SCVAL and third in CCS, positions they hope to maintain for the rest of the season.

“I think we can do pretty well in leagues and hopefully make it to CCS,” senior co-captain and setter Chester Leung said.

Junior Joel Schneidmiller is playing at a level that surpasses his performance from last year’s season. Despite having fewer kills per game this year, Schneidmiller has nearly doubled his blocks this season with 45 so far compared to only 25 last year. He has also improved his serves, and has already had 129 aces this season. 

Since the team’s two losses at the beginning of the season, the Falcons have had an eight-game winning streak.

They beat Los Altos, the No. 4 team in the league, 3-2 on March 25 at home.

“The game was super close the entire way through,” said senior co-captain Spencer Yen. “We stopped making errors in the game by starting to block and shutting down their top hitters.”

On March 23, the team beat Lynbrook 3-2 away. The team also beat Homestead 3-1 on March 16 after losing to the Mustangs the week before.

Schneidmiller had outstanding games, getting 32 kills against Lynbrook High School and 38 kills against Homestead. Even more impressive was his hitting percentage in both games, which was almost 1.5 times higher than his average hit percentage of .586.

Now that the team is on roll, the Falcons are beginning to reach their potential.

“Our early losses during the season were games that we should have won,” Leung said. “I think our recent wins definitely attest to that.”

After beating Mountain View 3-1 on March 11, the team dominated in a tournament on March 12, winning 2-0 in all four of its games against King’s Academy, Mitty, Leland and Leigh, giving the players confidence as the season progresses.

The team has also worked through difficulties of filling the roles opened after key seniors graduated.

“Other players stepped up like [seniors Thumaty] playing libero, [Alex Li] playing hitter opposite and [Spencer Yen] moving out to outside,” Leung said. “We have a good team and we definitely have a shot at CCS Championships.”