On Thursday, May 9th, Varsity Boys Volleyball defeated Carmel High School 3-0 in the CCS semifinals. CHS had periods where they scored a lot, but Montavista was able to regain control and ultimately win all three sets.
Senior outside hitter Elijah Kang said it's important to stay mentally focused throughout the game. However, Coach Kang said that this pre-game preparation ultimately led to the victory, as the team passed and defended well.
Sophomore middle blocker Pratham Kanan agreed, saying it was also helpful to analyze footage from other CHS games. In addition, Kannan and Kang believe that using the serve machine during practice helped them practice serve-receiving.
“The serving machine serves the ball 10 times harder than a human server, so going from the serving machine to the game definitely helped,” Kannan said. “We did a lot of reps and practiced a lot to make it feel like a game.”
Head coach Paul Chiu said he is grateful for his team's dedication and tenacity in this year's CCS. Chiu said the team has been working consistently and he believes that because of that, they will be able to achieve success during the match.
“Even a bad game requires tremendous effort,” Chiu said. “It was worth it tonight. There was effort and we touched the ball a lot on defense, so I'm proud of this team. They don't give up and continue to work hard to create success.”
Looking ahead, Kannan is optimistic about the rest of the season. He says team morale is high and the players are excited about both his CCS finals and his progression to NorCal.
“I think we're all locked in and we know we really want to win,” Kannan said. “We're the No. 1 seed and we want to prove we're the No. 1 seed, so we just came up with the spirit of wanting to win and bringing high energy to get more points.”
Sophomore Joaquin Garcia and senior Barkas Azreya blocked their opponents' batted balls.
