By Candice Tran
The other team’s crowd flooded the gym with chaotic screams of “side out,” but the Barons remained calm and came out victorious.
On Thursday, Feb. 23, Fountain Valley High School’s boys volleyball team went head to head against the Gahr Gladiators and sweeped them 3-0. The Barons’ win over the Gladiators was a result of solid communication and teamwork. Essential plays were contributed by senior captains Curtis Harper and Jovanni Dang, though efforts were made by everyone.
“Thomas Ho and Joseph Nguyen were both very excellent hitters. Jovanni Dang and Arion Wang were great servers as well as playing [good] defense,” Harper said.
The first set began and the Barons came off strong. The Gladiators were unable to receive powerful serves made by junior Thomas Ho. To boost their score even more, Dang had great sets leading to many kills. The first set concluded in favor of the Barons with a score of 25-7. With one set in their possession, the Barons confidently strided into the second set.
Going into the next set, the tempo shifted for Gahr High School. The air was more tense as the Gladiators made more determined efforts to keep up with Barons in this set. Gahr kept the score close with strong offenses and defenses. While the Gladiators were able to tighten the score further with their digs, most of the points came from faults by the Barons.
With kills from senior Steven Doan and sophomore Byron Nguyen, an ace from freshman Arion Wang and serving faults on both sides, the score sat at 17-10. Soon after, the Gladiators then proceeded to go on a run—failed digs by the Barons allowed the score to close down to 18-14. The momentum shifted in favor of Gahr High School as their libero continued to serve four consecutive times, Fountain Valley unable to successfully receive the ball. Gahr soon tied the score at 19-19 in the second set.
Gahr was now at set point (22-24), but the Barons caught back up with a powerful kill from Doan followed by a stuff by Dang and freshman William Watkins. With the tensions rising, the Gladiators had countless faults that resulted in the Barons taking the lead 27-26. Only when a Gladiator spiked the ball out-of-bounds, did the second set finally come to an end. The Barons took the second set, 2-0.
“Mentally, we lose focus when we’re playing against a not-so-great team so we have to focus on staying tough and staying in the game, even if it’s not fun,” Harper said.
The second set was characterized by miscommunication, which resulted in a close score, but the Barons did not let this affect the third set.
The Barons scored the first point of the set with a smooth serve from Dang to a kill from Harper. The score was 3-1, but kills from senior Joseph Nguyen and sophomore Alec Pinedjian enabled Harper to serve seven consecutive jump serves, one converting to an ace. The score was now 9-1 with the Barons pulling away.
The third set continued with both sides exchanging points and rallies. Ho had two strong kills that kept the Barons ahead, followed by an overpass kill and two aces from junior Bennett Heydorn, which propelled the score to 16-9.
After a long rally, Gahr obtained the point after a failed dig by Fountain Valley. Miscommunication was now a problem for the Gladiators as the Barons were starting to pull away to end the set. Capitalizing on Dang’s powerful serves, kills from Joseph Nguyen and overall smart plays from the Barons, the score was at match point, 24-15.
With the final tip from Ho and the failed attempt at a play by the Gladiators, the Barons took the win in all three sets.
“Our team played pretty well today, but we need to tighten up on covering each other’s passes because although we have faith in each other [getting kills], we need to be there for one another when [it] backfires,” Dang said.
The Fountain Valley Barons’ next home game will be on Thursday, Mar. 3, against Garden Grove High School at 5 p.m.
