On Friday, April 5, the SHS boys volleyball team played in a doubleheader against Perry Meridian High School and Roncalli High School.
For Head Coach Ethan Coffman, this was an amazing game to watch because of how well his team competed and how much they enjoyed playing.
“Watching them be happy and successful and joyous playing the sport that I love … is just so fun,” Coffman said.
Although most volleyball games end when a team has won three matches, these games ended when a team had won two matches to help the games move along more quickly because there were multiple games to play.
In their first game of the night, SHS faced off against Perry Meridian. In both matches, the Falcons got off to strong 3-0 starts, but the Cards were able to tie things up quickly.
After rising to a 13-11 lead in the middle of the first match, the Cards continued to pull away and won the first match 25-19. During the second match, the Cards were ahead 10-9 before going on a 8-0 scoring run. The game ended in another 25-19 win for the Cards.
The key to the dominance the Cards had during the middle and end of these matches was communication, according to senior defensive specialist Kyle Portillo.
“Communication is really key for our team,” Portillo said. “If there’s no talk, we’re as good as dead, so I think communication is what really kept us going.”
This game marked the first “battle of the birds” win for the Cards since the spring 2019 season, according to MaxPreps.
This was a huge accomplishment, senior libero Bei Hnei says, since the team has been working towards this since his freshman year.
“We tried every year, but we couldn’t defeat them,” Hnei said. “So this year, our senior year, our golden year, … finally we defeated them. It’s like a relief. Finally we got them, so we feel really happy.”
The Cards continued their strong start to the night by winning the first three points of their match against Roncalli. However, Roncalli, who is currently ranked third in the state according to MaxPreps, showed their strength and gained a 7-4 lead.
The Cards continued to fight, though, and the match was close throughout. With the teams tied 25-25, the match went into overtime, in which a team must win by two points.
There was a tense atmosphere in the Fieldhouse as fans waited to see who would come out on top. And, after the Cards appeared to have won the match, the stands erupted in cheering. However, the point got recalled, and Roncalli ultimately ended up winning the first match.
“It was back and forth at the end,” Hnei said. “It was intense. It was fun. I enjoyed it a lot.”
During the second match, the Cards seemed to have lost some of their confidence and let Roncalli play to a 6-0 start. The game got as close as 13-10 in the middle, but Roncalli came out with another win in the second match 25-16.
According to Portillo, the players’ “momentum slowed down a bit” after the first match, which he believes led them to losing the second set as well.
Although Roncalli did win both matches, the team learned a lot from playing them.
Not only do they have insight into what skills to work on going forward, but they also can take some confidence from this match. According to Coffman, his team “earned a lot of respect” from him because of how closely they competed with one of the the top teams in the state.
“We can take that we are there,” Coffman said. “We are, in our mind, and really with (our) play tonight, top in the state.”
