By Candice Tran
On Thursday, Mar. 2, the Barons matched up against the Garden Grove Argonauts and defeated them 3-1. Despite a rocky start—with the Barons losing the first set, the Barons managed to pick themselves up and take the next three to secure the game.
After coming back as undefeated champions (5-0) from their away-tournament at Tustin the previous weekend, the Barons were ready to obtain another victory. Big contributors to the performance were junior Thomas Ho and senior captain Curtis Harper with many kills. On the other hand, senior Joseph Nguyen made essential blocks and freshman Arion Wang played solid defense, while consistent sets were given by senior captain Jovanni Dang.
“Our biggest goal, always, in every game, is to play to our caliber, regardless of what’s on the other side [of the court], and to win,” head coach Rebecca Cheltenham said.
The first set began with the Barons taking the first point after a serve by the Argonauts. Points were exchanged back and forth due to hard spikes and serves made by both teams that soared beyond the baselines. With the Barons making many faults and lacking communication, the Argonauts took the lead 6-8.
After a long rally transpired, Wang had a clean dig that converted into his team getting the point. Shortly after that play, junior Bennett Heydorn and Nguyen blocked a spike from the Argonauts. With an ace from Wang to follow—the score advancing to 15-13, Garden Grove called a timeout to hopefully stop the Barons’ momentum.
Both sides continued to produce many serving faults that led to points being awarded to the other side. While approaching the final points of the set, the Barons started to lack communication and composure. The Argonauts capitalized on the weakness they found in the Barons’ defense and took the first set 20-25.
Going into the second set, the score was still tight. Wang then had a successful dig that allowed Harper to get a kill off a pipe, pushing the Barons above the Argonauts 5-3. The Barons were finding their groove again as Ho got an ace along with Harper’s kill. Sophomore Alec Pinedjian then proceeded to stuff the other team twice, while Dang managed an ace, increasing the Barons’ score to 14-9.
With the Argonauts being unable to get the ball over the net on their attempted plays, the Barons were pulling away in the score, causing even more faults for the Argonauts. The score sat at 24-17 following Harper’s powerful kills and more blocks by Nguyen and Pinedjian. The Barons won the second set 25-17 after the Argonauts made a fault.
Harper started off the Barons with a kill in the third set. He then proceeded with an overpass kill, accompanied by an ace from Dang. Harper continued his performance by getting various kills that enabled the Barons to grow their points (9-7). The Argonauts made numerous faults and errors, all which supplied the Barons with more points. As the set reached its end (18-9), the Barons had unnecessary faults of their own, but this did not stop them from taking the third set, 25-18.
“We need to improve executing on our side of the court. Also, controlling our side, and a little bit less unforced errors. We finally started to pick it up and had good energy,” Cheltenham said.
The Barons led the game 2-1 and came out strong right at the beginning of the fourth set in hopes that this would be the final one of the night. Harper came out with an ace, just after getting a kill to start the set. To add on to their score, Nguyen had another block. Despite the quick start for the Barons, the Argonauts held their weight—blocking and getting a few kills of their own; the score was 7-7.
Despite Dang typically being on the dispensing end of Baron sets, in the next play, he was on the receiving end—obtaining the Barons a point off of his hard-driven spike. Both the Barons and Argonauts then continued to fault, an obvious result of the pressure building up for both sides as they both craved the triumph that winning the set would bring. The score was 17-17 as both sides fought diligently.
Even after the Argonauts went on a small scoring streak, the Barons got a quick side out with a dink from Nguyen as well as a line shot and an ace from Harper. The feeling of victory drew near as the Barons began pulling away with a block and a kill from Ho (23-19). A few final attempts were made by the Argonauts to overtake the Barons, but the game concluded after a kill from the Barons, the fourth and final set score sitting at 25-21.
Fountain Valley came out victorious yet again in their home game against the Garden Grove Argonauts. Regardless of their rough first set, the team came together and beat the Argonauts 3-1. The overall record for the Barons this season is 9-0.
“Our connection wasn’t really there today, but we’re gonna get it back in other games. [Hopefully] we achieve a 25-0 score,” Ho said.
The Barons’ next match will be a non-league away game on Wednesday, Mar. 8, against Kennedy High School at 4:30 p.m. Their first league matchup is scheduled for Mar. 17 against Marina High School.
