On Saturday March 31, the Varsity boys’ volleyball team won fifth place out of twenty teams at the Watsonville Tournament in Watsonville, winning the silver division championship in the process.
The team went 4-1 but played without co-captain Akshay Tangutur (12), who was out with an injury. Though the injury was initially thought to be a sports hernia that would require surgery, he will still have to undergo recovery and rehabilitation for about a month and may be back to play the final game of the regular season against Mountain View on May 4.
“To me, tournament wins are definitely confidence boosters for the team [….] While all the players and teams are still working hard to earn that win and improve their respective records, tournaments are fun, since teams can experiment and try out new things,” Akshay said. “I was able to watch the game from the eyes of a spectator, but more importantly, like a coach. At times, I definitely was able to see points and plays that the starters couldn’t see, and I attempted to coach them and hopefully [had] a positive impact.”
Akshay’s injury affected the performance of the whole team, as many players had to adapt to playing different positions.
“Because of his absence on the court, we shifted around multiple players into new positions,” co-captain Dwight Payne (12) said. “Overall, we performed well and learned a lot as a team through the five matches.”
The team’s only loss was against Westmont, but it defeated Soquel in two sets in the final. Without Akshay, Andrew Zhu (10) was also a captain for the team.
“This tournament was the turning point for our team. We really began to click and function as a cohesive unit and aIl hope that it can carry on for the rest of the season,” Andrew said.
Head Coach Dan Molin hopes that the experience the players had will help them in future games, beginning with their next game against Homestead on April 11.
“The full day of play not only serves as an opportunity for the team to gel as a competitive unit, but [also] spending an entire day together is naturally a bonding experience,” he said.
Josh Tien (11) also thinks that the tournament win will help them for the remaining games.
“The way we played in the tournament is definitely something we should be happy about, but we also can’t get too carried away, and we have to maintain the same focus and intensity for the rest of the season,” he said.
The team has seven league games and a two-day tournament remaining before the CCS playoffs begin.