By Jenny Chen, staff writer
After an undefeated season the boys volleyball team went into city champs on Friday, May 12, at Kezar, with high hopes of winning the city title, but an undefeated season wasn’t meant to be for the Lions as they lost to the Lowell Cardinals in 3 sets (25-18, 25-23, 25-18). Even with the loss, the overall 22-5 Lions earned a #7 seed match in the CIF Division-4 State Playoffs at #2 seed Carmel High. Though they put up a tough match, the Lions eventually lost 3 sets to 1 (20-25, 25-20, 25-15, 25-18).
One of the main reasons the Lions had so much trouble against Lowell was because senior setter Teddy S. was sick putting the Lions at a disadvantage for the game, although junior OH, Vince G. stepped his game and helped carry the Lions on offense. However, the Lions couldn’t do enough on offense, and the blocks were also not there, while Lowell’s right side and middle were unstoppable.
The Lions did have the lead in the 3rd set in hopes of coming back, but the Cardinal’s capitalized on a few of the Lion’s mistakes, which allowed Lowell to catch up mid set. While being very close to winning the third set, the Lions made a hitting error, causing a momentum shift to give the Cardinals the advantage, and they took that chance to finish the game and the match.
Junior DS, Matt L. stated that everyone’s mood seemed very sad after the game: “Everyone just looked disappointed and gloomy, but I’m still glad we had a good season regardless”.
Coach Mark said, “It was a slow start, a lot of nerves. Once we got going we played well but it was not enough to overcome Lowell’s experience.”
Even with the loss, the Lions still advanced to the Norcal tournament on Tuesday, May 16, where the team had to travel 2 hours and 30 minutes to Carmel High for the D4 first round of the state playoffs. Despite traveling 118 miles, the Lions put up a good fight, but ultimately fell in 4 sets.
The Lions had a great opening to the game, starting the first set with a kill. Having well-earned points to start off the match, they got the upper hand in this set due to Carmel making unforced errors and hitting into the net. The Lions finished the first set 25-20.
Things changed though in the second set, as the Lions made a lot of service errors, while Carmel’s setter aced a lot of serves, allowing Carmel to get off to a good start and an early lead. They also got a momentum boost and came up strong on the offensive side, and the Lions weren’t able to break it, losing a close set 20-25.
In the third and fourth sets, Galileo had strong defense throughout the both sets, however the hitters couldn’t finish or get the points needed for one final push. They picked up everything on serve receive, but the blocks weren’t there and hitters couldn’t finish.
The Lions lost 1-3 and it was the last game of the season. Finishing in a 10-0 league, 22-6 overall during the whole season.
Coach Mark said, “We played well but we fell back to our old ways and could not compete in the end.”
