You Just Got Served! 2016 Volleyball Tri-Cities

From the 9th to the 11th of October, our Rams volleyball teams attended the annual Tri-Cities tournament. The volleyball teams stayed at our very own ‘Ramnasium’ with home court advantages. During these few days, our Rams performed their best, pouring their hearts into everything so that they could represent us the best they could.

During the first day of Tri-Cities our Rams played against Utahloy International School of Guangzhou (UISG) and Shanghai American School of PuDong (SASPD). Both of our teams started out strong, securing a victory each during their first game against UISG. This fired the teams up, allowing them to enter their second game against SASPD with high intensity, and the correct mindset. The girls lost a close first set against PuDong, but kept pushing and had a tremendous comeback with a 3-1 set, winning the match. When playing their fourth and final set, the girls pushed even harder and won with a 28-26 match point. Senior Subah Sehgal said, “There was such a positive energy and attitude exuding from every single girl, whether they were on the bench or the court, which truly made our victory that much sweeter.” As for the boys, PD was  tough competition. The PD boys were highly skilled, which resulted in an unfortunate 0-3 defeat for our boys.

On the last day of Tri-Cities both the boys’ and girls’ volleyball team competed against Western Academy of Beijing (WAB). The girls played first and unfortunately faced a 0-3 defeat against WAB. This knocked out the team from the finals, and instead they played against Utahloy, competing for third place. On the other hand, the boys played an intense match against WAB going into a fifth set. With a 2-0 lead, WAB caught up and edge the boys into a 2-2 set match. The boys pushed on however, with an intensity and confidence that could not be stopped.  They went into their fifth set with a 15-17 point win advancing into the championship game against PD. Thinking back to the game, senior Eric Lam said, “For me, seeing my younger teammates being able to pull out a win with me against WAB in the way that we did was probably one of the proudest moments of my high school volleyball career.”

Although the girls lost against WAB, they came home with unwavering confidence. They played a good game of volleyball against Utahloy for which they placed third, winning a trophy. Playing in the finals against PD, the boys maintained their team tenacity and got 2nd place. When asked about the strengths of the boys’ volleyball team, sophomore Javin Liu said, “Talking about strengths, our team is made out of sophomores, really. We are not that experienced in this sport and can’t be as good as other teams with seniors and juniors. What we have though, is team spirit. We shout and yell to make our players have the confidence on court.”

All in all, this was a great tournament for our Rams to gain experience for their APAC competition coming up in October at WAB. When asked about the most memorable moment(s), sophomores Becky Renfrow and Sophie Elliott agreed on saying “The moments on the court when we were so excited and honestly happy about the way we played or just the rally itself were the most memorable moments.” Looking forwards APAC, Elliott and Renfrow says, “[We hope] To win, dominate and bring home the gold.”