On Tuesday, April 31, the Archie Williams varsity boys volleyball team took on the Cardinal Newman Cardinals at home in round one of the North Coast Section (NCS) playoffs. The Cardinals put up a tough fight to the end, but the Falcons landed on top, winning in five sets.
The Falcons started the game off strong and kept the Cardinals at bay. The game began to turn in the wrong direction for the Falcons after Cardinal Newman scored four points in a row. However, after a time-out, the team regained the lead. Junior Zach Wulff helped Archie Williams win the set 25-18 with several kills.
“Our hitting was really good, I think that we can always improve on our passing, but for the most part we did pretty good,” said Zach.
The two teams were an equal match, remaining close for the beginning of the second set. Despite the Cardinals’ 5-0 scoring run, Archie Williams turned it around winning the set 25-19.
“We started great. Overall, everyone was swinging, everyone was passing, [and] everyone was communicating really well,” said coach Alex Perelson.
The Cardinals took the lead to start the third set, forcing the Falcons to take an early timeout. They started to break even in points towards the middle, with each team scoring five points a piece.
“We had some communication issues [and] we needed to wake up and have some more energy,” said senior Liam Kriessmann.
This back-and-forth continued throughout the majority of the set, but the Cardinals pulled ahead in the final points, 23-25.
In the fourth set, the Cardinals began by maintaining their momentum for several consecutive points, working against the Falcons’ strong defense. The teams were neck and neck, but the Cardinals forced a fifth set, winning three points.
“Toward the third and fourth set, our energy kind of died down, because we assumed we were going to win. We can’t have that going forward,” said senior Ellis Chamberlin.
Both teams came out to the fifth set firing on all cylinders, hoping to take home the win. Zach had eight kills in the final set, leading the Falcons to fly above Cardinal Newman. This set ended 15-13 in favor of Archie Williams.
Even though the Falcons game started and ended strong, Cardinal Newman didn’t make it easy for them. After a rough third and fourth set, Archie Williams was able to make a successful comeback. The team will advance to the second round of the NCS tournament against Albany High School on Thursday, May 2.
“We should win on Thursday. Marin Catholic would be a very, very tough game, but [it’s] another team we can beat. So hopefully we can make it to the end of NCS and play in the finals,” Perelson said.
