Boys JV Volleyball, 7-3 overall, took on six different CIFLA teams last Saturday at the Sylmar Invitational and came home as champions of the gold division.

The Gondoliers played five pool games and three playoff games. 

Venice’s pool included Grant, Kennedy, Banning, and Providence. In the play-offs they faced Van Nuys, Banning again, and Wiseburn DaVinci.
They won a total of twelve out of thirteen sets, where they lost their only set to the Providence Pioneers, 2-3. 

Coach Allen Hunt said that the team played “well as a unit and individually.”

“We practiced hard, daily,” he said. “And when we serve consistently, talk consistently, and take good approaches, the team plays very well.”

Sophomore Owen Lin and Junior Zachary Heimanson also commented on the team’s performance that day.

“Today, we definitely started out very rough,” Lin said. “First game, pool play was very questionable, and our first playoff game we almost lost, but we brought it back, and then everything after that first game was just win after win.”

Due to the basketball season’s late finish, the team has faced numerous challenges from starting their season late.

“Our first game was a week after we started practicing,” Heimanson said. “A lot of us have played together before, but we have a lot of new kids, so just getting back to that teamwork aspect was probably the most difficult part of the season.”

“Their energy is a strength, their communication is a weakness, but they’re playing hard and together, and that’s what matters,” Hunt said.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Despite these challenges, the players still used their individual skills to guide the team to victory. 

Lin calls attention to Freshman Timmy Sund and Junior Mathew Sund for “being very good liberos with very consistent passes,” as well as Sophomore Evan Ta Sophomore Zac Sund for being “oppos that both played very well.”

Heimanson also attributes “the connection between the players” and “the energy levels of the bench” to the team’s victory.

“The fact that we’re all friendly with each other makes it so much easier to play as a team,” he said. “And just with that experience, and that friendship, and that teamwork, it really makes it easy to play good volleyball.”