The varsity boys’ volleyball team was created last year, and they had a record of 8-7 in the league last year, according to MaxPreps. So far, this season, they have had a dominant start, with a record of 4-1 in the league this season, according to MaxPreps.
To qualify for the playoffs, the team needs a 50% win rate in league games or a greater than 50% win rate in non-league games, head coach Naomi Lacuzong said. However, the team hopes to do better than just a 50% win rate this season, she said.
“I tell the boys that just because we qualify doesn’t mean we get in,” Lacuzong said. “So, they want to make it to playoffs, which means the better record you have, the better chance you have. So we’re aiming for first in league.”
This year, the team is showing more focus to do good in the league and improve in their mental game, technical game, and overall in comparison to their first year, Lacuzong said.
“They all (the team) know that their goal is to qualify for CCS,” Lacuzong said. “We talk a lot, we watch films, and everybody’s building their IQ, and they know what they need to do to get better. All of them are asking questions and want to get better, which is probably the biggest reason we’re doing pretty well.”
In their first year as a volleyball team, the boys felt more like a put-together team instead of a real team with synergy, with most of the players also more used to club volleyball, senior defensive specialist Viet Dinh said. The team has more chemistry in this second year in comparison to last year, Dinh said.
“I felt like skill-wise, we were pretty good, but our defense could have been better,” Dinh said. “It was also our first season, so we were probably scared. This year, we definitely have a lot more confidence.”
Playing club volleyball tends to be more fast paced compared to playing games for the school team, senior middle hitter Princeton Nguyen said.
“For school season, you play best out of 5 sets,” Nguyen said. “But because club season is a lot more fast-paced, and you’re trying to get through everything, it’s best out of three. In club season, you’ll also mainly play tournaments where you play a lot of different teams, while for school, you play individual teams on different days.”
The volleyball team’s chemistry is good this year because a lot of the players are friends outside of volleyball and have better communication and cohesion as a result of that, senior middle hitter Princeton Nguyen said.
“It’s a lot easier to communicate and really have experience with the rest of the team because of that,” Nguyen said. “Overall, there’s just a better connection with them because I played with these centers for a year or two before we were even on the team. So that chemistry kind of builds on the team, and then it just makes it a lot easier to play in actual games.”
To prepare for games, the volleyball team runs a variety of drills depending on several game situations, Nguyen said.
“Drills like hitting and blocking mesh together with other drills,” Nguyen said. “So we’re running scenarios that would happen in the game, and they all come together. For hitting and blocking, we have a ball in play, and we’re just playing it out, seeing how we can reach this specific goal or how the point plays out.”
The team has more of a communal aspect, where everyone’s filling their role on the team and can replace people who are hurt or sick, so the players trust each other a lot, Lacuzong said. The team should still be more confident in their own ability and skill, Lacuzong said.
“I just want them to go out there with confidence and have fun,” Lacuzong said. “Because if you’re more confident, you’ll have fun, you’ll be aggressive, you’ll do all the things you need to do, because whether you win or lose, at the end of the day, if they’re doing all those things, communicating and just having fun with each other, they’ll get better.”