Boys volleyball: Redwood in pole position after win against Archie Williams
The last two unbeaten boys volleyball teams in the league, Archie Williams and Redwood High, battled it out on Wednesday for sole possession of first place and pole position for the MCAL regular-season title with three games to play.
After dropping the first set at home, the late stages of the second proved crucial for Redwood, which rallied late to tie the match then cruised to a 20-25, 25-23, 25-12, 25-16 victory.
“We make our adjustments and we’ll figure out teams,” Redwood coach Ben Wang said. “I think we’re a good team but what I’ve noticed throughout our season is the first game is kind of a warm up, if you will. It will be tight. That first set is the first set we’ve lost in MCALs. The first game has been tight with other teams as well, regardless of where they are in the rankings, but then after that we figure them out.”
Redwood (11-5, 4-0 MCAL) figured things out just in the nick of time against Archie Williams (9-6, 4-1). The Giants held a 19-14 edge in the second set but saw it slip away as outside hitter Zach Wulff had a trio of kills to fuel a rally that put the Peregrine Falcons in front 22-20.
The Peregrine Falcons’ flurry came during the rotations when Redwood’s standout player, middle hitter Beckett Shewey, comes off the court defensively. Sensing his team needed a spark, Wang re-inserted Shewey into the lineup for a point and he immediately came up with a kill for a 20-18 lead.
A service error with Archie up 22-21 brought Beckett back into the action and the Giants won five of the final six points to level the match at 1-1.
“We get momentum, we win points, we’re strong as a defense, strong as an offense, and we put the ball away,” Shewey said. “It was just a matter of time until we got there. We knew we could do it. We were just waiting for it.”
Wulff had four big kills down the stretch of the pivotal stretch for Archie Williams but Shewey responded with three kills and the set-winning block. The two players, who are both listed as 6-feet, 7-inches tall, are among the favorites to be named the MCAL player of the year this season.
“It was great,” Shewey said of his duel with Wulff. “We played on the same club team last year so it was a great opportunity to play each other. He’s gotten a lot better. I’ve gotten a lot better. It was a really fun match because we got to compete against each other. We got to see what we can do and we played our best, both ways. He had a few massive kills and I had some kills.”
From that point on, Redwood seized control of the match. Archie Williams led 7-4 after three consecutive hitting errors by the Giants. The Peregrine Falcons committed three double touches in a span of four points as Redwood moved back in front 12-7. Redwood got rolling and ran away with the third set, 25-12, when setter Auden Baker won a joust at the net for set point.
The Giants never trailed in the fourth set, racing out to a 12-4 lead and holding on from there. The match ended on a block by Evan Wang.
“Charlie (Gehrman) played a great game on the outside,” Ben Wang said. “The other key is Evan and Jack (Alley). When both of them are in the backcourt together, not a lot of balls hit the floor. The two of them as a defensive team together – I think they are the two best defensive players in the league.”
Shewey finished with a game-high 26 kills while Wulff had a team-high 15 kills to go with four blocks. Baker had 35 assists for the Giants and setter Ellis Chamberlin had 27 assists for the Peregrine Falcons.