By SPENCER RUSSELL
The Jericho boys volleyball team flew under the radar with a successful fall season. While most fans were preoccupied with the abrupt ending of the soccer season, the volleyball team gained momentum heading into the playoffs. Led by a core of six seniors, the team finished with a 9-7 record and locked up the third playoff seed. Jericho went on to beat Calhoun in their first game, and defeated the second seed, West Hempstead, in the county semifinals. Jericho’s season ended with a 3-1 loss to Bellmore in the county finals.
One thing that Jericho hasn’t escaped all year is injuries including senior Joe A.’s torn ACL
that ended his season, senior Ben A.’s knee surgery and concussion that kept him sidelined, senior Jason M.’s torn shoulder labrum that kept him very limited, and senior Jason K.’s mono diagnosis that caused him to miss three weeks of the season. Although the amount of injuries to key players seemed immense, it didn’t seem to bother the team. With the help of backup players stepping up and filling roles, Jericho got better as the adversity increased. Jericho was at full health heading into the playoffs for the first time since the opening game of the season. Senior Jason M. decided to to fight through the pain and play. “I just want to do whatever I could to help the team,” he said. His motivation and determination was key to Jericho’s playoff run.
Jericho was led by all county seniors Max C., Jason K., and Joe N. and all county honorable mention Tyler B. They motivated the team to achieve the county championship. Seniors Max C. and Jason K. are humbly enjoying back-to-back all-county nominations. “Winning is the only thing that’s important, everything else wouldn’t matter if we don’t win,” said Max C.
After winning the first game of the finals, Jericho dropped the next three and Bellmore went on to win the title. This was a very tough loss for the team, but was especially hard for the seniors.
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