Kennedy Volleyball Team Drops First Match

The Montgomery County high school fall sports schedule was jumpstarted Friday evening by an array of volleyball matches. Wheaton's Kennedy High School (0-1) was among the teams competing, as they took on and lost to the Albert Einstein Titans (1-0) of Kensington.

The match started slowly for Kennedy. The first game, won 25-21 by Einstein, featured an obvious lack of confidence on behalf of the Cavaliers, who let ball after ball hit the floor untouched. By the second game, the Kennedy girls started to clean their act up a bit—actively calling for balls and following through on those calls. The Cavaliers took game two by a score of 25-16.

Mirroring the first two games, the third and fourth were split between Einstein and Kennedy, the Titans winning game three 25-23, and the Cavaliers reclaiming the tie in game four by a count of 25-18. Although the tie-breaking fifth game was locked up at seven halfway through, Einstein found a way to slip through Kennedy's fingers, winning the final stanza 15-12, and putting a lid on the match.

"Starting in the first game, all I could think was what a long season this was going to be," Kennedy coach Martha Hsiung said after the loss. "But, I think there's a lot of hope for it. We improved throughout the match and controlled the ball so much better. You could actually see volleyball breaking out more and more frequently."

According to Hsiung, Kennedy's struggles, especially those apparent in the first game of Friday's match, can be attributed to youth, inexperience and lack of practice time. Four Cavaliers who logged heavy playing time in the game, including the team's libero, had never played a minute of varsity volleyball before the match. Several others, including senior setter Sarah Park, are playing brand new positions.

Youth, inexperience and adjustment aside, there were certainly bright spots to behold on Friday, including the play of Park, senior Seray Bayoh and junior Yaa Ofori.

"Yaa has a big jump. She is going to be a dynamite outside hitter. She's not very confident, but when she gets a hold of a ball, she really gets a hold of it," Hsiung said. 

The Cavaliers will attempt to bring their record back to .500 on Tuesday in their next match, a home affair against Springbrook.

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