On Thursday, April 2, the FHN Boys Volleyball team defeated FZE two games to one. This marks just the second time this season the the Knights have had to play a third game in a match, but this time they came out with a win.

“We were feeling confident,” Senior Adam Rogan said after the match. “We had already beaten them earlier this season, so that gave us more confidence.”

The two teams traded points for the majority of the first game, with the largest lead in the early stages being a three-point advantage that FZE had at a score of 5-2. FHN turned up the heat later on in the game, going on a 7-0 run to make the score 21-15 by the time the second timeout was taken by FZE. The Knights closed out the game by taking full advantage of the unforced errors by the Lions, winning 25-22 on a ball hit out-of-bounds by FZE.

“The first game was closer than it should have been,” Senior Gabe Grote said. “Our energy was lower than required and expected. We had to stop missing our serves.”

The second game started off much more poorly for the Knights, as the Lions stormed out to a 12-1 lead, prompting FHN to call what was already their second timeout of the game. The Knights’ fortunes changed after the timeout, though, as junior David Hood sparked the team with a block and two aces all in succession. After a timeout taken by FZE, FHN took their first lead of the game at 14-13. An 18-15 lead for the Knights forced the Lions to call their second timeout of the game, after which FZE came back to tie the game at 24, forcing a deuce situation in which the scores go above the usual 25 because the winning team must win by at least two points. The two teams tied again at 25 and 26, but FZE took advantage of the serving advantage they had gained to score the two points they needed to win, with the game-winner being an exclamation point of a kill by Sam Brandmeyer.

“I was disappointed,” Coach Ryan VonFeldt said. “We did not play well. We put ourselves in a huge hole at the beginning. We made it a game, but there is no reason that it should’ve been that close. It really served to wake the guys up.”

Coach VonFeldt must have told his team those same words, as the Knights came out with a fire inside of them. Rogan began the third game with two aces, and they never looked back. FZE did not have a lead in the game; the closest they came was a 10-8 score partway through, but FHN had extended that to a 15-9 lead by the time the Lions called their first timeout. The Lions began to grumble again, pulling within three points, as the score was 16-13, but they would score just one more point in the game. FHN took off from that point, gaining a 19-13 lead at the second stoppage of play due to a FZE timeout. It was the lack of mental stamina that held FZE back in this game. They began to botch simple bumps and hits, but the real killers were Gabe Grote and Chase Powelson. The hitting tandem combined to out-kill the entire FZE team with 17 kills between the two, with all but one coming off of assists by Adam Rogan, the FHN setter. The game ended with an outstanding ace on a picture-perfect jump serve by Grote to cap a 10-1 FHN run.

“It, [ending the match with an ace], felt great,” Grote said afterwards. “We were pleased to just finish the game, and it was nice to put the finishing touch on it.”

The Knights are now the owners of a 7-3 record on the season, and they have tough games against St. Dominic, FZW and age-old rivals FHC, but, if the team listens to their coach’s words of wisdom, they should be just fine.

“We feel very confident,” Coach VonFeldt said looking forward in the season. “We just played a great game against Howell, and if we play like we did against Howell, we shouldn’t lose another game all year.”