Boys’ volleyball pushes past La Cañada with 3-0 victory

By Jung Su Park

Staff Writer

The boys’ volleyball team lived up to its legacy of four consecutive Rio Hondo League championship titles after defeating La Cañada, 3-0. The Tigers silenced the Spartan crowd  under the offensive leadership of senior Richard Yu and junior Greg Luck, who both converted 11 kills. South Pas stands 4-0 in its overall record and 1-0 in the Rio Hondo League.

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The Tigers’ defense seemed slow to open up the match with frequent communication errors, as South Pas allowed the home team to score easy points. There were numerous mistakes in serving as well, and the boys saw themselves down 5-3 on the road. South Pas quickly adjusted to grab the lead through good hitting to score three straight points. However, three errors followed, erasing the Tiger run and forcing Coach Benjamin Diaz to call a timeout. The Tigers then recuperated and showcased a focused offensive performance in setting and hitting to cut the early deficit, and rally past the Spartans in the first set, 25-21.

IMG_9654South Pasadena aimed to bounce back from its sloppy play during the opening period. Junior Max Luck helped his teammates to do so, spreading the ball to both outside and right hitters, and involving every Tiger on the floor. The Tigers came out with new energy and worked to reduce their number of mistakes. Although the scoreboard read a tight differential throughout the whole second set, such strategy proved effective as South Pas never gave up the edge to defeat La Cañada 25-21 in the second set.

Heading into the third set, the visiting squad looked to complete a sweep without a single set loss, while the home team was desperate to avoid such humiliation. La Cañada grasped to a fighting mentality throughout the whole set and forced the Tigers to revert to committing mental errors, but it wasn’t enough to top the surging Tigers.South Pas made up for its mistakes with a strong offensive outing throughout the final set to overpower the Spartans, 25-22.

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“We were shaky throughout the entire game with the Spartans fighting their hearts out,” junior Matthew Ng said. “We were able to ultimately prevail as we knew we were the stronger team; we filled our respective roles and finished each set with great force.”

The next event on the boys’’ schedule is a non-league matchup versus the Saint Francis Golden Knights tomorrow at the Tiger gym.