The Highlanders walked out against the James Madison Warhawks on Sept. 4 as a confident squad, with a series of dominant 3-0 wins against Justice high school and Alexandria city high school giving them a reason to feel accomplishment . Undefeated through three games, the reigning state semifinalists were prepared to show their skill yet again. Their opponent was a Warhawks team that has struggled early on, going 0-3 through their first three games. Despite the difference in pedigrees, the Highlanders were not going to let up.
“We have equal respect for any opponent,” senior center and captain Evan Li said. “Everybody’s a threat, and we are always going to keep up the intensity.”
The Highlanders came out of the gate looking aggressive but unfocused. The score stayed close, and bad mistakes made sustaining a lead impossible. However, McLean flipped a switch on the back of a dominant stretch from Li, scoring ten unanswered points in a row. Despite a small rally from the Warhawks, the Highlanders still managed to close out an impressive first set 25-13.
The second set began similarly, with confusion and miscommunication marring many impressive individual plays from several different Highlanders. Junior outside hitter William McGinnis was flying across the floor, but every block or spike he made resulted in a miraculous return from the Warhawks. Despite the errors, McLean managed to crawl their way to a substantial lead, winning the second set 25-19.
“We can’t dwell on the errors,” head coach John Tamashiro said. “ We have confidence in what we do and what we practice, and we showed that in the second set.”
The issues continued to plague the Highlanders as they entered the third set. A raucous Madison crowd, headed by a cohort of their girl’s Volleyball team, dominated the atmosphere in the McLean gym.
“The noise was definitely distracting, but we’ve dealt with worse,” McGinnis said. “The playoffs last year prepared us for this moment, and our mental game has definitely been tested.”
The concentration was much needed, as the Highlanders went down 7-17 on a series of ugly mistakes. As they took a timeout to stem the bleeding, the Madison crowd rained chants down on the reigning state semifinalists. The momentum was completely against them, and the possibility of dropping a set to this lowly warhawks team seemed almost certain.
“We needed to recompose, and that timeout was really important,” Li said. “We got our heads right, and came out ready to come back.”
Come back they did, as they went on an 18-4 run to win the set in miraculous fashion. Behind a dominant stretch of serving from Li and decent communication for the first time in the match, the team managed to pull back, despite the distractions provided by the aggressive crowd.
“I was really impressed by the team, it showed a lot of confidence and mental strength on their part to come back from down so much,” Tamashiro said. “Challenges like that are what truly make a team better.”
The team heads to Marshall next week to hopefully extend their win streak to five and stay undefeated.
“We’re ready to go,” Li said. “We’re confident and dangerous, and we’re ready to show that to the rest of the district.”
