On the evening of Feb. 25, 2025, the Foothill Technology High School (Foothill Tech) boys volleyball team faced off against Cate School (Cate) where they lost 1-3 in a home matchup. While the boys were able to keep up with the pace of play, the Dragons struggled to combat Cate’s offense, only losing each set by a few points.
As the first set began, Cate made a missed serve right off the bat, making the Foothill Tech team hopeful for a win. However the initial hope soon faded away after multiple nail-biting rallies and small gaps in score. During multiple plays, Jack Marshall ‘25 and Elijah Haigh ‘25 made their presence known, ending rallies with powerful blocks and kills. Feeling out the competition, Cate slowly made a comeback from missed serves at 16-10. As the match got closer to the end-score with Foothill Tech leading 22-20, each team favored strategy over power, and eventually the Dragons called a timeout to clear the air. Finally, Styles Haley-Kettler ‘28 made multiple tips and roll shots, eventually winning the first set 25-23 with a powerful line hit.
Obtaining momentum, Foothill Tech started the second set off with a serve by Jaden Wallace ‘25 which was rallied on by both teams and the play was finished when Cate made a kill to win the first point of the game. Not long after, the Dragons came back, and got a back row kill by Haigh, which was followed by a kill by Curren Wiggins ‘26 on the next play.
Cate’s defense was strong and put them back in the lead as they dominated the court with three blocks before Foothill Tech called a time-out at 13-17. Quickly, the Dragons picked up their energy on the court with a kill in the middle by Marshall. This was followed with an ace by the Dragons, but Cate came back with a block against an attempted kill by Max Benedik ‘28 which kept them in the lead, 17-20. The Dragons fought back to tie the score 20-20 before Benedik had a back row kill to put Foothill Tech in the lead resulting in a time-out by Cate. Cate’s motivation from their time-out led them to shut out Foothill Tech 22-25 in the second set.
As the third set started off, Cate missed their first serve once again, putting Wallace up at the service line; however, this 2-0 lead was soon lost due to Cate’s adaptability. Despite the high tension on the court, the Dragons still kept the score tight. Blocks from Wiggins and line shots from Kettler gave Foothill Tech some confidence throughout the set.
At 12-9 Foothill Tech started to make a change, Haigh made three consecutive hits, and finally pummeled Cate with an angle hit. However, after this hit the pace of the game started to shift with points going back and forth. As rallies continued to move the score forward with multiple hits by Haigh, a timeout was called as tension built after the score read 25-25. The Dragon’s defense began to crumble after long rallies drained their stamina. Foothill Tech eventually lost the set 28-30, giving them little breathing room to come back in the next set.
After the game, Wallace commented his opinions on the game saying, “I think we did pretty badly, certain pieces of our team that we need to win just were not there today, especially in the third set.”
Foothill Tech started off the fourth set with service but lost momentum as Cate took a 0-2 lead before Foothill Tech could come back with a point. Although the Dragons attempted to gain points and kills, they could not overcome Cate’s defensive blocks.
Cate’s momentum flourished as they aced Foothill Tech, leading the Dragons to call a time-out. After Wallace’s perfectly executed setter dumps, energy was brought back on to the court. Wallace then showed his endurance by serving an ace and started the Dragon’s comeback.
Haigh kept his team in the game with a deep kill, but unfortunately this brief momentum fell off as Cate’s defensive blocks kept the Dragons from executing hits and scoring points. Subsequently, the Dragons were aced three times in a row due to Cate’s strong offensive efforts and lack of communication by the Dragons, a trend that continued until the game’s end. As the set progressed further and a gap in score grew, a missed serve and hit out by the Dragons left the score at a whopping 9-24. With only one point needed for Cate to win, the Dragons could not close this gap in score and missed their last serve to loose the final set 11-25.
Despite their commitment and competitiveness, the boys volleyball team lost against Cate 1-3. After the match, Wiggins talked about some takeaways from the game, saying, “I mean, starting from the first game of the year, I knew our team could do good, we could win, we could just do so much better than what people have seen in this game. So, next practice, we have to go hard, fix our mistakes and we can for sure turn the season around after what you guys have seen”.
The Foothill Tech boys volleyball’s next home game is on April 1, 2025, at Cabrillo Middle School against Dunn School (Dunn) with the hopes of securing a win, and potentially paving the way for future California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) games.
