Boys volleyball crushes Hawthorne

The boys volleyball team crushed Hawthorne High School in their home game on Tues., March 21, winning in two games. According to Kyle Zolkin (’17), the game went pretty well and the team wasn’t exactly surprised by their victory, but they had the chance to use the game as a way to further develop their abilities.“The game went pretty well,” Zolkin said. “Hawthorne isn’t a very good team and we expected to beat them, but we use these games to work on critical skills. Some strategies we used were serving tough into the corners to make it harder for them to pass, and staying in system—which basically means that we get a pass, set and spike instead of just passing it over the net. The serving went pretty well but still needs work.” On the other hand, it’s possible that the lack of challenge for the team led them to not perform as well as they usually do. Although it was clear Samo was the more skilled team, Zac Pittard (’17) stated that the Samo boys could have taken better advantage of their upper hand over Hawthorne. “I think it went well because of our win,” Pittard said. “However we shouldn’t have played down to our opponents’ level.”As the season moves ahead and the team’s togetherness continues to grow stronger, they aim to reach their overall goal of being undefeated in league and eventually winning CIF Championships. “Our team is mostly seniors and most of us play club volleyball which is really useful because it happens off season,” Zolkin said. “Our team is pretty tight and most of the guys who are in it are close friends. We have very ambitious team goals, with the end result being to win a CIF Championship for Samohi. This year is our best chance.”With their win against Hawthorne, the volleyball team is a step closer to their goal. “The thought of winning it all my senior year with my friends, and having a CIF banner for 2017 keeps me motivated,” Pittard said.