Boys' volleyball takes down Falcons

NELSON H. KOBREN GYMNASIUM, March 25 -

After three dominating sets, the boys' varsity volleyball team (3-0) defeated the Poolesville Falcons (2-1) by a final score of 25-13, 25-8, 25-14. The Blazers' consistent aggression and forceful serves proved to be too much for the Falcons throughout the entire match.

Junior co-captain Andy Zhang led the Blazers with a game high of 13 kills and three aces over the course of the match. The Falcons played from behind during each set, and their defense was unsuccessful in counteracting the Blazers offensive attack. By the third set, the match was far out of reach for the Falcons while Blair maintained all of the match momentum.

Although the Blazers lacked a few of their critical starters - such as senior leader Robert Huang - due to various circumstances, Zhang believed that the team played extremely well. "We knew we had to put in 100 percent of our effort and work together as a team," he said.

The Falcons were extremely unproductive at scoring when they attempted to serve the ball against the relentless Blazer defense. The majority of their points were acquired by off target serves by the Blazers and other unforced errors. "We should work on our serves so that we can minimize our service errors and close off holes in our blocks," senior Eugene Kim said. "We also need to perfect our communication as a team."

The Blazer victory was a well-rounded team effort due to sophomore Ricci Huang's 11 kills and co-captain William Cai's four aces. On the defensive end, seniors Kim, Jacky Chu and junior Rick Narcisse helped to prevent the Falcon point production as a result of the trio's ability to effectively block the opposing serves.

Head Coach Chris Liang attributed the Blazers' success to the heightened focus going into the match. "We were conscious of remaining calm and not getting over excited during the match," he said. "We also tried to work on the techniques that we executed in practice."

Blair's wide margin of victory gives them confidence in what they will be able to accomplish in the future. "Poolesville was definitely a better team than Northwood and Paint Branch, yet we were still able to work together to beat them in the first 3 sets," Kim said. "There were no miscommunications when passing the ball, we called out our play balls ahead of time and most importantly, although we didn't have half of our strongest players playing in tonight's game, we still pulled through and won."

The boys' volleyball team will play its next home game on Friday, April. 1 against Wheaton at 7 p.m.