By Katie Vo
On Feb. 24, Fountain Valley High School (FVHS)’s boys’ volleyball team played their first preseason game of the spring season against Ocean View High School and came out with a 3-0 win.
While the Seahawks initially had an advantage by having the serve to start the game, the Barons scored the first point with junior Jovanni Dang making a deft maneuver: the setter dump. Jovanni Dang “dumped” the ball over the net on the second touch, earned the Barons a quick side out.
After a few rotations, Jovanni Dang returned to the front row and scored another point with an overpass kill.
The Barons showed good defense when diving and covering the opposing team’s tips. There were some points given to Ocean View from misserves and hits that landed outside of the court.
The Barons managed to gain momentum whenever the jump serves were consistent. Ocean View had to call a timeout when the Barons were leading 12-5 from junior outside hitter Curtis Harper’s serving run.
After a misserve from Harper, he easily earned a quick side out for the Barons with an overpass kill. Junior Joseph Nguyen also ended a rally with a cross cut shot from the right.
The Barons took the first set 25-14.
For the second set, Coach Morteza Shiari subbed in the benched players. Similar to the first set, the Barons gave points away to the Seahawks with misserves, but still earned points with sophomore Bennett Heydorn ending rallies by swinging from both sides of the court.
The second set ended in favor of the Barons 25-18.
Going into the third set, the starting players returned, determined to win the set and finish the game. Senior captain Joshua Dang earned another side out for the Barons’ first point with a deadly kill.
Once Jovanni Dang was able to feed the outside hitters high fours, back sets and an occasional pipe for a back row attack, the Barons regained their momentum.
Textbook passes from the back row defense as well as a huge block from Harper helped Fountain Valley sweep Ocean View in three sets with a final score of 25-16 in the third set.
“Ocean View wasn’t the most competitive game but we focused a lot on teamwork … and [we] definitely did our best out there on the court,” Joshua Dang said. “I hope that we do our best in trying to win every single point that we can … since every point matters, hopefully we score points against the best teams [in the league].”
The boys’ next home game will be on Mar. 23 against Marina High School at 6 p.m.
