by Kyle Nguyen, Staff Writer, Michelle Nguyen, Staff Writer/Photographer & Sandra On, Staff Photographer
On Friday, April 8, Baron boys fought hard against Marina in Fountain Valley High School’s (FVHS) Game of the Week, winning 3-1 with individual scores of 25-19, 25-13, 25-22 and 25-19.
Despite a major setback in their Hawaii competition over spring break, the Barons worked extremely hard with lots of pressure and encouragement coming from their coaches as well as their own teammates. With rigorous training, however, our boys were able to wipe out Marina in this home game.
“We’ve been working really hard after getting last place in Hawaii. I think that we should work more on our defense and hustling because we lack in those parts of the game and it really affects our team,” said Downey Huynh (’17).
In spite of Marina’s strong blocks and definite height advantage over our Barons, they were able to pinpoint the opposing team’s weaknesses, including the poor communication between their setters and hitters. With great dives made by libero Cameron Nakashima (’18), our boys proved to be successful with forceful hits from both the left and right side of the court and the roaring support from the audience with each point made.
“I feel like this was the result of how hard we practiced and how we wanted to win more than they did. Our passing and defense allowed us to take over and win,” said powerhouse Will Thibodeau (’16), who announced his presence on the court with fast jump serves and hard-driven hits.
Although the first set was entirely neck and neck throughout, our Barons managed to pull through and score a win along with the second set. With a loss in the third set, however, the boys wrapped it up in the final set, made possible by Timmy Ho (’17) with clean and strategically placed sets and strong float serves. As they approach their upcoming game against Huntington Beach High School on Friday, April 15, the boys remain confident and continue to practice intensively for the match.
“I think we’re looking good. The way we’ve been practicing, I think we can take on whoever we will face in the future,” said Huynh.
