The boys varsity volleyball team put up a fight against Glenbrook South (GBS) on Friday. March. 22, for their first home game. Going into three sets, West won the first, with a score of 25-14, but unfortunately fell short in the second and third sets losing 25-14 and 25-20. The game had high energy with lots of cheering from both teams and the stands with high hopes that West would make a comeback.
Varsity coach Zachery Sinn has been preparing the boys for this season with long practices and lots of training. The boys battled through the game but fell short, with hopes of making a comeback throughout the season.
“We have been practicing hard every day to prepare for the season and have been focusing on serving receiving and serving effectively. Despite the loss, the team played very well. We executed the game plan we had and competed at a high level throughout the game,” Sinn said.
Sinn has many things he wants the players to work and improve on to hopefully have a good season with lots of wins. He needs his athletes to play aggressively during conference games to make it far.
“I think we can improve on from that match us staying aggressive when the match is tight. At the end of the third set, we weren’t as aggressive with our serving/attacking as they were, which was ultimately the difference that allowed them to pull away. Getting more experience like this and playing against good competition will help get us there. Looking ahead to the rest of the season, our goal is to start our conference games off strong next week against Niles North. Ultimately we hope to win the CSL North conference and advance deep into the IHSA player bracket,” Sinn said.
Senior Scooter Arthur had a lot of enthusiasm throughout the game. Arthur plays the right side and middle back positions. Since he is a senior, this will be his last year as a part of Wests’ volleyball program. Hoping to end his high school volleyball career strong as well as helping the team improve. Arthur knows what went wrong this past game and has goals for the boys to improve so it doesn’t happen again.
“The first set went well, we played with high energy in the second set but we became too comfortable and had to put up a fight in the third set. We one hundred percent should have beaten them but I guess the first home game nerves got to us. We had good passing and we played smart. We had good energy throughout the game. I want to keep our energy up for the rest of the season and not play down to any team no matter how good they are,” Arthur said.
Sophomore Dorian Silo is new to the varsity squad but he played hard and aggressively. Silo has many goals throughout the season and hopes to help the team this year. The game had many ups and downs but Silo worked hard throughout them to keep putting up a fight.
“I thought we played well. We all communicated throughout the game and the energy was up the whole time. We struggled with backdoor passes during the game, which is something I think we need to improve on. I want to play with more energy and improve on communicating with the team better for upcoming games,” Silo said.
Make sure to come to support the varsity team as they start their first conference game against Niles North on April 10.