Last night our boys volleyball team were in Santa Ana for a very anticipated match-up against the Foothill Knights. I was lucky enough to get special access to all 3 team sidelines, pre-game, and the team bus to interview some players and find out some insight on yesterday’s game.
Frosh interviews:
Jakob Kaneko:
Frosh team captain and opposite hitter Jakob Kaneko said that he was confident that his team had the game handled. He did inform the Aztlan that he was worried because Foothill’s defense is very good. He said he was sure that his boys could get the job done and his score predictions were eventually correct because the frosh team ended up winning the match in 3 sets 2-1.
Evan Stopher:
Frosh’s libero and outside hitter Evan Stopher said he thought his team is tough enough to put up a good fight. He did say he was a little concerned in frosh’s ability to focus during the game yesterday. He predicted Foothill to win in 3 sets (2-1)
Brian Dyer:
Aztec volleyball’s frosh/soph setter Brian Dyer was concerned with how the team would perform yesterday because he thought Foothill’s team was very strong and would give a good fight. He also predicted an Esperanza win in 3 sets (2-1).
Frosh/Soph ended up playing a very close, tight, and exciting game that came down to the last second. They lost the first set, and then came back and won the next 2. The last and decisive set was really a nail-biter but the team ended up getting the job done 18-16 on the final set.
JV Interviews:
Alex Hoover:
Middle blocker Alex Hoover was semi-confident regarding JV’s game yesterday. He was confident in his teammates though and said that it would be a tough game that Esperanza would have to win. He was concerned because he said Foothill will probably be the best team Esperanza would face all season. His predictions would be Esperanza winning 2-1 in 3 sets.
Jayden Partridge:
The other middle blocker on the team, Jayden Partridge, was very confident in the team and said that they would sweep the board against Foothill 2-0. He didn’t have any concerns whatsoever and thought this match would be light work.
He ended being very wrong as the JV team got swept 2-0 on sets, but the 2nd and final set wasn’t a terrible scoreline, just 25-22. To be fair the squad wasn’t as complete as usual so by any means don’t count this team out!
Amir Menendez (Game Manager):
The Aztlan even had the opportunity to reach out to volleyball’s game manager Amir Menendez. He was very confident in our team overall and said we would ball out. To be fair he was somewhat right as 2 of the 3 levels won their game last night.
Varsity interviews:
Noah Lemmon:
I was only able to reach out to one varsity player which was outside hitter Noah Lemmon. He was very confident in the game today and said that the varsity team will crush Foothill in 4 sets 3-1. I can’t lie Noah had a reason to trust in his team though because what varsity ended up pulling off was pretty impressive.
The team was 2-0 down on sets. It wasn’t looking good. I was sure they were gonna lose and I even ended up leaving early so I could prepare myself for a long day of sports writing the next day. What I heard was that varsity had miraculously come back to win 3-2 on sets! If you weren’t aware, varsity volleyball sets are best of 5 which means the first team to win 3 sets wins the game. So varsity was that close to losing but they pulled it together and won the next 3 sets in a row. Great job guys!
