The SHSID Stallions U19 Boys's volleyball team played against GHCIS Tigers for the fourth game of their season on Monday, October 18th. The Stallions were under great pressure playing against last year’s champions, but were able to persevere with a close victory of 2 sets to 1.

The Stallions experienced a rather harsh start on their first set where they allowed the opponents to score multiple consecutive points. Seeing the disorganized status of the team, the Stallions worked hard on bringing their team synergy back up. After a time-out and a few successful attacks, the Stallions were able to close the score gap. After reading the Tigers’ style of play, the Stallions started targeting their attacks. Such strategies put great pressure on the Tigers’ defense, which gave the Stallions a win on their first set at 25:12.

The Stallions showed a strong start on the second set, quickly bringing the score difference up to 8 points. However, just before SHSID was about to pass 20 points, the Stallions started losing concentration. Blinded by their confidence, the Stallions made simple errors including net faults and miscommunications. Just like that, GHCIS quickly caught up in points and brought the game into deuce. After more disgraceful errors, the Stallions were devastated at losing the second set 25 to 27.

Disheartened by the Tigers’ momentum, the Stallions were in terrible conditions when the third set began. The pressure carried over from the previous set was seriously taking a toll on the players and the Tigers took this chance to score consecutive points on the Stallions.

The score widened to 2:8, and it was half-time (third sets are played until 15 points). After a quick time-out, the Stallions were pumped with adrenaline and began playing both smarter and harder. With furious concentration, the Stallions targeted their serves and spikes at the weaker links on the other side of the net, quickly closing the score gap. The score was brought to a deuce, and with a final offensive push, the Stallions took the third set at 16 to 14.

The game against GHCIS was a memorable lesson for the Stallions, and they’ll only get better from this point onwards. Let’s hope for another victory next Monday on October 25th when they face off against SUIS WY for an away game!

（Written by Itten Oh 11(2) Pictures by Coco 9(7) Supervised by Linxiang Wang Reviewed by Qian Zuo）