On November 6, BHS’ boys varsity volleyball team took home the state championship title for the first time in the program’s history. In volleyball, the first team to win three sets wins the game. The team beat CVU in three straight sets, ending their 5 year streak.

“It was so crazy, and all of the fans stormed the court,” Eh Law Soe ‘23 said. “There was so much excitement going on.” 

Duy Tran ‘22 jump served to finish the game.

“It feels good to be that person to put down the last point,” Tran said. “And afterwards, everybody is just crowding you. It feels like you’re on top.”

The boys started off the game with a strong lead.

“In the first set, we had 6 points in a row unanswered,” Rory Stein ‘22 said. “We could tell right then that this was our game to win.”

The team focused on resiliency and working hard both individually and together.

“Throughout the whole game, I was focused on keeping pushing points and not letting them come back or take our lead away,” Tran said.

This mindset allowed BHS to quickly gain their lead.

“In this game, they were putting a lot of balls back over to us, and we were just running like a little machine,” Stein said. “We always kept playing. We’re able to bounce back, and we’re able to play off of each other really well in situations where it gets kind of crazy.”

The early lead and the fan turnout got the team fired up.

“We just kept fueling off the energy of both crowds,” Cooper Smith ‘22 said.

Before the game, the team discussed strategy. In their semi-final game against Essex, Stein had gotten a lot of spikes. They decided that they were going to move the momentum away from Stein and put it on Tran, successfully catching CVU off-guard.

“Duy and I played on opposite sides of the court, so that left him wide open, and he can just absolutely kill the ball,” Stein said. 

The team had a unique approach for preparing for the championship game. Their main focus was spending time with each other, so the team went out to eat before the game.

“Getting food together as friends allows us to bond as a team, which really showed on the court,” Stein said. “We got to hang out with each other and make some jokes. There were no nerves going into it.”

Tran said the team had a great environment.

“We focused on keeping a high spirit the whole time on and off the court and just being ready to win and have no negativity,” Tran said.

They also made sure everyone was included in the win.

“I think utilizing everybody on the team was a key to success,” Tran said. “The coach is part of that by putting people in the position that he thinks they have potential in- making our roster really good.