Boys Volleyball played their CIF qualifying matches on Apr. 19 and 22 against Woodbridge. The team suffered a 3-2 loss against Woodbridge in the first game, but bounced back three days later with a 3-0 blowout win to send them to CIF.

Senior Henry Wilkens-Huff noted difficulties in the first game.

“During our match on Tuesday we had great energy as a team and played hard, we just let too many little mistakes slip by and that cost us that win in the end,” Wilkens-Huff said.

Junior Thomas Fukada attributed the team’s points to a few key players.

“I think all of our players were important during that match,” Fukada said. “[Senior] Jimmy Huang came up with huge blocks and points during set 3, [senior] George Wu had amazing defense picking up every attack that Woodbridge attempted, and [senior] Nick Hinker set the ball to give our hitter opportunities to score points. [Senior] Travis Nguyen and [sophomore] Connor Mursalo are huge parts of the team, being able to score points for us at almost any time. Middle [sophomore] Alec Apelian came up with clutch blocks and [sophomore] Max Bartulis with consistent hard serves to help us comeback.” 

Both Wilkens-Huff and Fukada noted issues with communication and consistency in the first game.

“Some challenges our team faces are performing well under pressure when it comes to our serves and rotating out of serve receive, but we’ve come a long way and are still winning enough games to give ourselves the chance to improve further in the future,” Wilkens-Huff said.

Even with a setback in the first game, the team was able to recover on Apr. 22 with a massive win over Woodbridge, taking the win in three straight sets.

“Our biggest accomplishment would be closing the win against Woodbridge, sweeping them 3-0 sets and qualifying to CIF we just wish to play our best and to see how far we can make it though CIF,” Fukada said. “I’m sure all of us would like to see how far through the tournament we can go.”

Boys Volleyball will be continuing in CIF for the second year in a row.