Boys’ tennis dominated their Marin County Athletic League (MCAL) championship on April 25. Boys’ lacrosse proved themselves with an undefeated MCAL record. Girl’s lacrosse matched that with an undefeated record in MCAL of their own. Boys’ golf put up a casual 16-0 record and boys’ swimming and diving held their own by coming out on top in MCAL’s. All the Redwood Giants needed was for boys’ volleyball to cap off an exceptional spring sports season.
The Marin Catholic Wildcats faced the Redwood Giants in an intense championship game at the Phil Roark Gymnasium on Friday, April 26, and the Giants did not disappoint.
The Giants came out strong in the first set and took an early lead over the unsuspecting Wildcats. While both teams were battling it out on the court, the crowd chanted enthusiastically while wearing their Leadership-sponsored neon shirts. With a bigger turnout than expected, coach Tahan Minakov made sure that the nerves didn’t get to his players.
“I think the support of the fans definitely played a [major] part in getting them that extra adrenaline they needed to beat a very, very talented Marin Catholic,” Minakov said.
Despite a great start, the Wildcats managed to steal the first set from the Giants, 25-22.
Redwood didn’t allow this small defeat get to their heads and responded with a match of their own, 25-23. Sophomore Asher Heller stepped up to the plate and exceeded at his setting position, which led to dozens of kills and points. Even with impressive individual performances from Heller, junior Tanner Rich and sophomore Colin McDermott, senior Connor Mishoe still attributes their success to having each teammate’s back and trusting each other.
“I’d do anything for all the guys [on the team] and that’s sort of been the theme the whole year,” Mishoe said.
However, the Wildcats didn’t give up just yet and bounced back winning their second match, 25-20.
The Giants handled the high-pressure fourth set confidently and evened it out with two matches a piece, 25-20.
Then, the final set arrived.
Both teams were eager to compete, sacrificing anything they had left to prove that their school is the best in Marin. Sophomore Colin McDermott, on the other hand, had something else to prove.
“Us upcoming sophomores, Lucas, Asher and all the guys [are] the future of this team. Being a sophomore and being a crucial part of this team is just important to me. I take [that] with pride,” McDermott said.
Through the last set, the crowd continued to show their support and the Giants slowly pulled away from the Wildcats.
“We just played our own game, we got hyped ourselves and we brought everyone’s positivity up. When we’re all together, all positive, we’re all in the game, that’s what brought us up through this game and I was really happy about that,” McDermott said.
The Giants won the final set with a score of 15-8 and became the 2019 MCAL Champions.
When asked how the team was celebrating their victory, Mishoe responded with great enthusiasm showing how much this meant for him.
“WOOOOOOOOH! We’re definitely going to be celebrating for a while, but it’s back to work because we [have] NCS on Tuesday,” Mishoe said.
Credits:
Photos by Ryo Weng