Carter Borth, junior setter, started the game with a seven point serving run on Monday, April 15, which led to their sweep against the Moorpark Musketeers. A volleyball game all starts with a serve. Seniors Nolan Suarez, Joey Nelson, and Noah Park, were key players throughout the first set on service runs to lead their team. During the first set the team worked together and communicated to win the first set. The Highlanders made Moorpark earn each point they received and made little to no errors. They did not allow Moorpark to go on any serving runs and did not allow Moorpark to get more than two points in a row. The first set ended with Suarez, middle blocker, hitting off the block ending the score with 25-15.
The Highlanders struggled throughout the second set allowing Moorpark to maintain multiple leads against them. The whole set was neck and neck with both sides making errors such as missed serves and miscommunication multiple times. Junior Tucker Prosser and senior Jensen Moore, both middle blockers, played important roles during this set. Moore said, “We had miscommunication and errors throughout this whole set which let Moorpark get undeserved points. Every time I got set the ball I hit with intention and knew after contact that we would get the point.” Everytime Prosser and Moore got set it was an immediate kill and point. As the score was 21-21, Park, went on a four point serving run leading the Highlanders to win the second set 25-11.
During the third set the Highlanders decided to switch things up and have fun by putting players in irregular positions. From the start they cleaned up their mess from the previous set by communicating. They had their libero, Nelson, playing as setter. Outside hitter and defensive specialist, Park, as middle blocker which brought many smiles and laughs on the court. The coach decided not to replace Nelson with another libero but instead had their middle blockers pass in the back row. Many people in the crowd noticed this and were eager to see how the players would do out of position. Park said, “We wanted to switch it up in the third set and have some fun. Moorpark is a relatively easy team to beat so we wanted to mess around. Some of us played in different positions and we all played in a different rotation. After an unnecessarily close set, we wanted to clean up our game and have fun.” Even in new positions and messing around they still managed to make little to no errors and continued going on service runs. The final set ended in 25-11 leading Highlanders to another league win.
The players were not the only ones stressed and having fun, the crowd felt the emotions just as much. Senior Ela Lagattuta said, “I haven’t watched many of Royal’s games but the last game that I went to against Oak Park has me at the edge of my seat. When everyone in the crowd is cheering and yelling it brings excitement to everyone. I came to this game thinking that Royal would absolutely dominate Moorpark, but Moorpark unexpectedly stepped up their game in the second set. Seeing the excitement and emotion the players and crowd has makes me want to come watch all of their future games.” Ashley Mehdi, manager for Moorpark’s team said, “Every team gets nervous to play against Royal, they are a really good team with good players all around. When they communicate and work together they are almost unbeatable. I haven’t seen any other team with the amount of energy they have. Royal is the team to watch for volleyball. There is never a dull moment.”
Overall the Highlanders have 23 wins and 5 losses overall and in league they have 6 wins and 2 losses which ended their season second in the league. Now the boys have to prepare for CIF competition which will be more intense and stressful for both players and crowd. If the boys continue to keep their energy high, communicate, and work together they will have successful outcomes during CIF playoffs.
