The Arcadia High School (AHS) Boys Frosh Team faced California High School (CHS) on Mar. 6 in the South Gym. This game ended with the Apache’s taking both sets and ending the game with a clean 2-0.
The game began with CHS serving, but the Apache’s were able to win the point because of a freeball miscommunication from CHS. The Condors struggled a lot on serve receive and many of their passes were too tight on the net for the setter to get. This made it difficult for CHS to get a good offensive play. On the other hand, the Apaches had a strategy of hitting deep corners during their offense and focused on trying to get passes off the net. Players like freshman outside Kyle Troung and freshman middle Edward Lynn made it hard for CHS’ back row to get the ball up with their placement of the ball. However, AHS still struggled a bit with communication. Often there were plays where points could’ve been saved if players on the court were talking to each other. However, the set still ended with CHS’ libero hitting the ball to the roof, allowing the Apaches to win the first set with a score of 25-10.
“My performance during the game wasn’t [my best]; I believe I could have put in more effort [while] playing,” said Troung. “But overall the game was good since the majority of the players on the bench had the opportunity to play.”
The next set started with the Apaches’ on the service line, but a miscommunication with the setter and middle allowed CHS to gain the point. Quickly, the Apaches were able to win back the point with freshman outside Jaron Phan hitting right past CHS’ defense. This set contained longer rallies as CHS’ serve receive had improved and their offense was more aggressive. The Condors were more aggressive with their free ball placements and had a couple of spikes here and there. However, AHS’ front-row players still blocked a majority of CHS hits, making the Apache’s back-row players’ jobs a lot easier.
“Our team did pretty well with our defense since most of [CHS’] hits were slowed down with our blocks.” said freshman oppo Zachary Wu. “It made it easier for our back row to react since the ball wasn’t too fast.”
The last set ended with an ace by freshman outside Ian Ly, with a score of 25-11.
“One of the challenges during a lot of our games turned out to be just getting everyone to remember the basics that we [taught] in practice [for] every game,” said Frosh coach Jose Gonzalez. “Especially when I have personnel changes and mix it up [with] rotations [the boys] aren’t used to practicing. So this wasn’t an A+ effort from our guys in terms of our goals, but overall, what we show is that we practice really well and we’re used to seeing the ball in a lot of different situations, so we were never surprised. We worked really well.”
