Staff Writer
Photos by Tucker Judkins
The boys’ varsity volleyball team completed a three set rout against Santa Fe High School away on Friday, March 11. With set scores of 25-13, 25-17 and 25-17, South Pas now stands at a 6-4 preseason record.
The tempo of the game seemed slow in the opening serves. South Pas put up spikes from Tiger hitters which were blocked by the larger Chief players. Senior Greg Luck would make his first impressions against Santa Fe with a powerful kill to fuel the Tigers’ offense. Juniors Gunther Vaden and Matt Scholtz both contributed to the scoreboard with Vaden leading a kill down the middle, followed by Scholtz spiking the ball over the Chief blockers. Senior Scott Kawakami would keep up the momentum with a diving save to set up Luck for a perfect kill. Three more Luck kills would go unanswered by the Santa Fe defense, leading to a 12-6 lead for South Pas. The Tigers sustained its dominance throughout the set with senior Alex Nakagawa scoring two aces to increase the deficit over the Chiefs for a 25-13 set win.
Junior Lucas Fox resumed the offensive intensity for South Pas with a kill over the Chief blockers to tally up the first point of the set. Santa Fe began to reinvigorate its offense by forcing several errors on the Tigers’ backcourt. Scholtz would end the team’s offensive scoring drought with another kill over the Santa Fe blockers. This wouldn’t be enough to shake off the teams countless errors and the Tigers would call a timeout to regroup and adjust their strategy. From here points went back and forth between the teams with the Tigers slowly gaining the upper hand. Luck would lift South Pas past the Chiefs hitting with a 7-0 run to give the Tigers a two game advantage with a 25-17 set victory.
South Pas showed no sign of slowing down their game. Led by Luck, the Tigers immediately gained the upper hand in the set with a 9-5 lead and forcing a Chiefs timeout. This would have no effect for Santa Fe as South Pas kept up its momentum to cap off the game in a final set score of 25-17.
“We played with more energy as a team and gained an early lead so we had more confidence during the game,” senior Matthew Ng said.
South Pas looks to win at home against San Gabriel Academy High School on Thursday, March 17.
