JV Boys Volleyball Consolation Game

Little Knights rally to beat Eagles

By Sung Eun Song
International School

 The Cambridge boys junior varsity volleyball team came from behind to win over Christian Learning in the consolation game played at International gym Thursday.

 After losing the first set by 17 points, the Cambridge boys snatched a dramatic victory by winning the next two sets 22-25 and 15-9.  Through the victory, Cambridge gained the title of third place in JV volleyball.

 At the beginning of the first set, the Christian Learning boys seized the initiative, leading the game by 8-0. Those eight points were decided by Jorge Avila, whose serves were so powerful that they were barely blockable. He used his height to put power into his serves, but finally hit one too far. However, the Eagles soon made the score 12-1.

 Nathan Brown, Luke Phillips and Avila, using their height advantage, were the main attackers for the Eagles. They showed a perfect teamwork in cooperating with each other; one fielded the ball,  another bounced the ball high, and then the third other spiked it. 

 With this attack the Eagles made it to 21-1. However, as soon as the Eagles scored its twenty-second point, the situation reversed in Knights’ favor. The Knights got 7 points straight making the score 8-22 in a blink. However, there was too big a gap between two teams’ scores for the Knights to catch the Eagles in the first set, which the Eagles won  25-8.

 Unlike the first set where Eagles’ victory seemed pre-ordained, the second set was a totally different story. It was a tight match from the beginning. Neither of them was able to build a margin of more than two points. But this time, Knights were slightly ahead of the Eagles. The rallies lasted longer than those of the first set and the players became more aggressive as well.

 Marco Ovando, Percy Justiniano and Luciano Asturizaga of Cambridge defended well against the attacks from the Eagles, receiving the ball fluidly.  Although they didn’t try many spikes or hard attacks, they made the score 20-14 with their solid defense. The Eagles tried to catch up at the last moment and closed the gap to 24-22, but then the second set was over with the Knights narrowly defeating the Eagles 25-22.

  The third set was anybody’s game. At the beginning, the Knights took the lead by 5-1. After a little while, the Eagles stepped up their effort and tied the score to 8-8, but then the Knights regained the upper hand. The Knights increased their margin until they won the third set 15-9.