KHS Volleyball Varsity Team wins County Champs!

Kearny’s boy’s volleyball team faced their biggest competitor, Harrison, long ago with an unfortunate blow. However, they were given a second chance to cross paths with Harrison this year by winning 2 sets at the County Championship. 

After multiple plays and high fives, the boy’s varsity volleyball team celebrated this win with an abundance of cheers and screams filling the court, claiming victory against their biggest competitor. Star player William Mullins comments on the game “I believe our victory was well deserved. We came ready to play and it showed with us playing a very good first set. Harrison is a solid team and they fought back and took a 4 point lead in the second set. Then we fought back and closed out the victory.” The boys were even escorted by police vehicles, cruising down Kearny ave even in the heavy rain with smiles on their faces. Not a single thing brought them down that day. 

The team has been working their asses off all spring, constantly practicing every day of the week excluding Sundays, matches against other county teams every other day, both home and away, and of course, the fulfillment of keeping their consecutive winning streak. 

Captain Ethen Lugo, or preferably leader, of the team, commented on his team saying  “winning it after the 15 consecutive wins means, even more, these guys that I play with gave their 110% even if they didn’t want to or was hurt. It meant so much to win after the long win streak…I was super emotional winning the trophy, my goal was to leave with some type of silverware and the county championship was the perfect one.” 

The following couple of days however brought the atmosphere to a low after such a rush with the loss of their match against Belleville having the captain undergo stress as well. Lugo comments “The game of Belleville this past Monday for me was a complete nightmare….I wasn’t strong enough to help my team push through our success….mentally I was so drained. I reacted off of emotions and quit the team for a couple of days….I let them down unfortunately and am still trying to gain their trust and respect….” 

Despite the occurrence, Ethen Lugo keeps his head up and continues to raise the mood within his teammates hoping to be a role model for them while keeping the adrenaline going. 

The team is closely reaching the end of the season and school year, saying goodbye to not only the court but to their upperclassmen as well. Star setter Christian Poncio says “I feel really sad that this week can maybe be my last high school game ever. The one thing I loved about my season was the amount of fun we had and the brotherhood we earned.” 

Ethan Lugo adds on to the sentimental goodbyes saying to the Kearnian “I’m hoping for the same support as I did this year….one thing I’m going to miss about high school is the fans and the atmosphere when I step onto the home court…..it’s nothing but love, I have people come up to me and tell me so many positive things and it’s honestly amazing, it makes me feel like I’m doing a good job on inspiring people…..” 

Juniors however are excited for their last year coming up hoping for even more wins and some hoping for more playtime. JV members hold the same excitement hoping for their chance on the varsity team as well. Star player Mullins is also a junior hoping to make an even bigger mark next year. Mullins plays a sport every season, amazing his classmates with his athletic abilities whilst managing above-average school grades and other extracurricular activities. He says to the Kearnian “I hope that next volleyball season our team can play to the best of our abilities. I hope we can repeat winning the league and county championship as well as doing well in the state tournament. I enjoy playing multiple sports and I try to focus and make a commitment to each team I’m on.”  

The boy’s volleyball team no doubt has made quite some noise this year as the school year comes to an end. These Kards are hoping for a significant victory at the state’s tournament at the end of the 2022 Volleyball season. With more than 15 consecutive wins, these birds are ready to fly high.