With one full season under its belt, the boys varsity volleyball team kicked off the 2019 spring sports season with four wins and three losses.
“Our season is off to a pretty good start,” senior captain Raymon Chen said. “So far, we are 4-3, with our first loss being to an upper league team. It was a really close game, 15-12 in the fifth set.”
Despite only having one year of experience, the team has quickly adjusted to the new team environment and competition.
“As all new programs (do), we struggled with team chemistry a lot last season,” junior Dejo Al-Najjar said. “However, this season we are all getting to know each other quite well.”
The team has adjusted to losing a few seniors last year, and being one of the newest sports teams at Paly. The team has proven to have sustained its highly competitive spirit and is continuing to cause trouble for opponents.
“The team has progressed quite a bit (since last year); a lot of the returning players have really put in the work and gotten a lot better. Even though we did lose a couple seniors last year, I feel like overall as a team we are a lot more skilled this year.”
Senior Raymon Chen
The boys and fans are expecting an action-packed season to parallel its newly established strong team chemistry, according to Al-Najjar.
“This season, we have three teams that we play that everyone should clear their schedules for: Gunn, Sacred Heart Prep, and Wilcox,” Al-Najjar said.
Last week, the team faced off against both Wilcox and Gunn High School.
“We lost 3-2 to Wilcox, but the game went better than expected,” junior Lachlan Stayte said. “(Two days later), we played Gunn and won in four sets.”
Moving forward, the team will face-off against Fremont High School away on March 20, followed by two back-to back games against Saratoga High School. The squad hopes to carry its winning ways into the upcoming matches.
“Our goal is obviously to win leagues this year,” Chen said. “I feel like we definitely are good enough, and I’m excited to see how far we can make it in the off-season playoffs.”
