A sea of red was present at Cabrillo Middle School as the fans of the Foothill boys’ varsity volleyball team geared up for their team’s postseason opener. On April 30, the Dragons met their match in the first round of the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Division III playoffs against the hard-hitting Panthers of Peninsula High School. Wasting no time, Peninsula ended Foothill’s season in three sets (25-21, 25-14, 25-20) to advance to the second round. 

In the first set, the Panthers notched the first three points, but it was back-and-forth from that point on. Cooper Armstrong ‘20 and Matthew Godfrey ‘20 were among a few of the Dragons who helped Foothill stay within striking distance in the fast-paced set. With the score knotted at 15 points apiece, Peninsula scored seven of the next 10 points to take a commanding 23-18 set lead. They concluded the relatively competitive set with a score of 25-21.

Panthers go on massive 11-4 run to close out the second set. 2-0 Peninsula.

— Dragon Press Sports (@FDP_Sports) May 1, 2019

The second set was a completely different narrative; Foothill simply couldn’t get any momentum started against the athletically talented Panthers team. Foothill held a 3-2 lead early in the set while even managing to stretch the score to 8-8, but it was all downhill from there. A 17-6 run by Peninsula drained the energy from the gymnasium and the home crowd to give the visitors a 2-0 set lead.

Peninsula completed the sweep with a 25-20 victory in the third set that cut the Dragons’ season short. Ranked 124th nationally according to MaxPreps, the highly-esteemed Panthers glided to the second round of the tournament with the win.

Akin Akinwumi ‘19, one of the hitters for Peninsula that silenced the Foothill crowd with his powerful serves and spikes, felt that his team executed “poorly,” but emphasized the fact that “we still won” against a Foothill team that was co-league champions with Laguna Blanca in the Tri-Valley League this season.

“It feels good, especially since we drove two hours over here,” Akinwumi said. “We have really good coaches that push us to work harder and they’re very positive influences on us and we couldn’t do it without them.”

In their second-round game on May 2, the Panthers are set to face off against the Mustangs of Eleanor Roosevelt High School, who won their first-round matchup over Claremont High School in three sets.