On Thursday Oct. 23, the McLean boys volleyball team hosted the Langley Saxons in a heated rivalry matchup. Sitting at the top of the standings in the region, the Highlanders were hoping to close out the season, marking their territory against a strong rival.
The Highlanders came out strong, with junior outside hitter Will McGinnis spiking one into the floor for the first points of the match. McLean kept that momentum going, scoring six straight to start the match. Dominant serving from McGinnis and senior center Evan Li set the tone for streaks of McLean points. A relatively uncompetitive set resulted in the Highlanders winning 25-19.
McLean came out in the second set with much of the same. McGinnis served in his patently dominant fashion, but soon after, the Saxons began to mount a rally. After getting within one, the Highlanders soon snuffed it out with a streak of 5 straight points to make the score 14-8.
The Saxons yet again tried to claw their way back in, but the Highlanders closed out the set with an iron fist, putting them down with an unquestionable 25-16 win.
One set away from victory, McLean went into the huddle confident. However, the third set started slow for the Highlanders. The aggressive and all out nature of the both teams resulted in a high-octane start with several competitive rallies. The two squads traded blows until the score hit 23-23. At this point, pressure had mounted to an untenable point, and the Highlanders succumbed to it. They dropped the next two points and Langley got a set back.
The collapse seemed to continue, as Highlanders trailed at the start of fourth set. Slowly but surely, McLean began to turn it around. A thunderous spike from McGinnis tied it at 13, marking McLean’s return from a seemingly deathly lull.
“We can’t get complacent and we need to keep our foot on the pedal,” Li said. “We need to stay focused, and we are going to improve on that
From that point on, the Highlanders and Saxons traded blows. Langley took a three point advantage, but McLean rallied and eventually took a 22-19 lead. With only three points to go, the Saxons took one final timeout to try and recuperate their composure and mount a miraculous comeback.
McLean had no such illusions, coming out of the huddle and vanquishing the Saxons 25-20 to end an up and down night.
“We need to improve our finishing,” Head coach John Tamashiro said. “We always come out strong, then we lost that third game, and we lost our focus. We ended up playing keep up and lost intensity.”
As the team heads into playoffs, mental lapses such as these will begin to be a lot more punishing.
“We’re already at the tail end of the season,” Tamashiro said. “We hope that everything comes together when it counts.”
