This Wednesday the Bull's varsity boys volleyball team lost their playoff matchup to CLA after having won their previous four games in a row to secure a playoff berth and a 6-6 regular season record. Now that the season has come to a close, this is a good opportunity to look back and see how the team has come since the season started.
Since Parker has not had an official boys volleyball team since 2018, this year’s team had to be built from scratch---no easy task for any team, much less for one made up almost entirely of freshmen and sophomores. Nevertheless, before games started the team had managed to get a fair number of practices under their belts and decided to try and compete at the varsity level in an effort to get more experience for future seasons. With that decision made, the Bulls started headed the defending BIIF Division II champions Konawaena to start the season. Unsurprisingly, despite a good effort, the Wildcats managed to take the game in three sets with a uniform 25-10 scoreline in each set.
Despite the rough start to the season, the Bulls bounced back the next week to win their home opener against Ka Umeke in five sets to claim their first victory of the season and temporarily achieve a 50% winning percentage. Over the next few weeks the Bulls saw losses to Pahoa and Kohala (the latter being was a tough loss, as all but one of the five sets went to deuce) before managing to notch another win against St. Joseph in an easy three set victory. After that, the team had a week without matches before diving into the most demanding part of their schedule.
It kicked off with a close 3-1 loss at CLA and just two days later they had another road game at HPA which didn’t start well, as Parker lost both of the first two sets. Despite that, with help from the visiting crowd, they managed to rally back and take the next two sets and even take a 12-10 lead in the decisive fifth set before ultimately losing 15-12 in the tiebreaker. Even though the game ended in a loss, it lifted team spirits heading into a double-header that Saturday which kicked off with another nail biter, as this time the Bulls managed to come out on top in the fifth set against Kanu. Later that day the Bulls got their fourth win with a three set sweep after visiting Laupahoehoe in their last home game of the season.
The team's last two games were back to back nights on the road against Honoka’a and Makua Lani, both of which Parker managed to win, extending the winning streak to four. After initial fears that their playoff match may have to be forfeited because of conflicting schedules with the debate state tournament, it was able to get rescheduled to Wednesday night. Even though this match was a loss, it was a valuable experience for the team and players only have good things to look forward to.
With only one junior, there is a lot to build on in the years to come and still a lot of room for growth among the team. Regardless, the doors are always open to anyone willing to give it a try next season, as many games had the team walking a razor wire with only one or two subs to draw on.
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