Gustavo Vives
Examining Field’s performance against the French School in volleyball
“The team is looking really strong this year,” said Aaron Bachman, “and I feel really confident with Izzy on the court!”. As the teams practiced, more and more people showed up, drawing a small crowd of students and teachers who hung about the entrance.
This sentiment was shared by Coach Dee: “Coming off a game against Washington Christian academy, I feel we played our best and we had lots of resilience and communication, and I am very excited about today’s game
At the start of the game, The Field School’s crowd let out an immense cheer as Zoe L ‘24 sent out the first serve, scoring, with no trouble. The French School may have been intimidated by the growing crowd on Field’s side, but they held firm even after losing the first three points. “We may have lost in previous games but I am confident that they helped us improve as a whole this season.” Coach Dee remained optimistic.
Field continued their momentum, and the crowd went wild as they scored 6 points back to back within the first 5 minutes. An excellent 4-pass combo by the Field team sent the crowd wild with the score already 6-0 in the first 5 minutes.
Having reorganized themselves after their initial score deficit, the French School’s side successfully got another point on Field with their big advantage against Field being their players’ physical height. They went on to block several of Field’s hits after their initial 6-point run.
15 minutes in and the score is 11-7 for the Field side. Field appeared to start getting tired, with multiple players bracing themselves with hands on their knees, possibly worried that a French School comeback is not out of the question. The crowd, seeing their exhaustion, began chanting “Let’s go Field, let’s go!” It seemed to work, as at the end of the set, Field came out on top with multiple French Team misses. Field and The French School then regrouped in separate huddles, but quickly got back to it. Field again took the lead due to multiple mishaps by the French School’s team, resulting in The French School’s coach calling the team for another group huddle. It looked like the coach was trying to encourage their players to be more confident and aggressive in the face of home advantage.
At this point, some homecoming festivities outside ended and even more of a crowd swarmed the gym to show their team support. Many spectators began to point out Zoe’s leadership in the court, as well as how many of the younger members of the Field side got a chance to shine.
One could easily see many highlights in the round, with Molly Savage especially doing numerous perfect sets which undoubtedly won the team many points.
The new set now started with Field once again taking the first point but this time with a much larger attempt by The French School to prevent that. Kai Fuller, towering over the opposition, blocked The French School’s hits numerous times. Field now had a 7-0 advantage, a larger one than the previous round, The French School was demotivated and one could see they were not putting up the same effort as before. Every Field player knew their role and one can see their coordination was on point.
Field got to 11-0 in the middle of the second set, an overwhelming triumph, once again the teams huddled, the moods were night and day.
In this next set once more Field scored the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth points, without any resistance. The French School started to organize themselves better at the sixth point, but still, Field blazed through: 8 unanswered points.
Halfway through the match, scores started getting close to 18-12, the French School was putting their best effort forward to win this last set! The Field school had gotten 2 fouls so far, and the French school continued to be just 6 points away from Field. Parents were now concerned about the Team’s performance as the score gap got closer to 20 to 16 now. Yet Field struck back, and got to only 3 points left till victory! The French team was still determined to win at least this set and it showed! With multiple corner and edge shots catching Field by surprise.
The crowd roared! As the point gap once again narrows to 24-20 the Field just needed one point but the French are not giving up! In the end, Field triumphed as a French serve sailed wide.
French International team captain Daniela described their second half return to form as a personal success in adapting and becoming tougher. They noted that they were in different leagues, and if nothing, their comeback was a team building experience that they will learn from and look back to in the future.
With the explosive energy in the gym, this game displayed the epitome of the Falcons’ competitive spirit. The Field School performed outstandingly, and their efforts in coordination and training were put on full display resulting in their win, and contributing to Field’s Homecoming festivities.