On April 23, 2024, the Berkeley High School boys volleyball team won their senior night game against San Lorenzo. BHS took an early lead, winning the first set 25-15, then losing the second set 23-25. Finally, BHS won the third and fourth sets with scores of 25-15.
While the team was thrilled to have won their senior night, the second set was a bit disappointing to all of them due to the large leads they were able to hold in the other sets. According to BHS senior Clark Sullivan, the second set was lost because the team “stepped off the gas… (they) beat them well in the first set so (they) took it too lightly,” said Sullivan.
Senior and Captain Oliver Shrieve-Herzog agreed with Sullivan about the second set, explaining, “We won that first set by a lot. And we kind of just expect to, like, roll over them, you know, you can’t, you can’t really let up the energy. So they kind of just saw the opportunity,” Shrieve-Herzog said.
Partly due to the second set loss, tensions were high throughout the second half of the game. Varsity Head Coach Colton Stone said that strong emotions on both sides led to some chaos in the gameplay.
“It was just like a ton of good effort from everyone in the gym. People are diving over chairs and running around all crazy. And then also, there was ... some good competitive trash talk there (between the teams),” said Stone.
Shrieve-Herzog agreed that it was an emotional match because of Senior Night. The team said goodbye to seven of their players with a quick ceremony before the game and took team photos afterward.
After playing on the varsity team for four years, Shrieve-Herzog saw the night as a success, saying, “The energy was great. It got a little bit emotional but, you kind of expect that. It was great. I think the team played well. We’re happy about the win.”
While Stone was proud of all the seniors and excited to see where they went in life, he recognized the loss the team would sustain going into the next year. “We’re gonna have to put in a lot of work next year because it’s gonna be hard without all the seniors. We’re just losing a lot of skills, so it might be a rebuilding year, but we’ll just have to see how it goes,” said Stone.