With playoffs two weeks from now, boys’ volleyball, 21-14, will continue doing what they always do: “practicing hard and enhancing our skills to the best of our abilities,” said senior Ethan Kim, a captain with junior Justin Chen.
“We’ll probably watch some film to see if we can find the weaknesses in our opponents too,” he said.
Kim states that through the Gondoliers’ strength of defense and versatility, that they’re “virtually unstoppable.”
“I’m confident to say that all of our players could be put out on the court and be able to play top level volleyball,” he said. “We have a very deep bench in terms of skill since most of our players can play more than one position at a high level.”
This was shown through the Gondoliers undefeated playoff run to a Silver Division victory in the Chatsworth Tournament on the sixth of April.
“Hopefully with the CIF playoffs coming up, we can end on a high note,” he said.
Kim attributes the teams’ success to multiple key players, including senior Clayton Takahashi and Chen.
“Takahashi has provided us with good consistent sets the entire season and is a positive influence on our court, through both skill and energy,” he said. “Chen, as one of our captains and libero, leads the serve receive and has one of the most extensive volleyball knowledge on our team,” said Kim.
Like any other sports team, the Gondoliers are not perfect. Kim said that the Gondoliers’ main weakness is blocking.
“Although we have gotten much better at it, we leave a lot of holes in the block that expose our defense,” he said. “Other than that, we tend to get in our own heads, but our team and Coach Raul is there to uplift us,” Kim said.
The Gondoliers’ last game of the regular season is against the Hamilton Yankees, 7-4, this Monday, after defeating the LACES Unicorns,10-13, this past Wednesday.
Kim said that these games will be simple, and is confident in their defeats.
“If we can play our game and play our defense with good energy, the margin we beat them by will be a testament to how much we’ve gotten better over the season,” he said.
Last Friday the Gondoliers defeated the Fairfax Lions, 3-0, during Senior Night. Despite the Gondoliers reminiscing on their volleyball careers, “we still Swept Fairfax with close scores but, overall, it was really fun,” said Kim.
Kim said that the team was “nervous for no reason and underperformed.”
“Senior Night was a bit rough to say the least, I’m going to definitely miss all my fellow seniors,” he said.
They’ve all been so fun to practice, play and hang out with over the years,” Kim said.
