Volleyball Victorious: Boys’ Volleyball Claims Second Championship Title

In just its third season as an official team, the boys’ varsity volleyball team claimed its second consecutive New England championship this past Saturday, defeating Choate Rosemary Hall in the first round 3-0 and Northfield Mount Hermon School (NMH) 3-1 in the championship.

In dominating fashion, Big Red came out firing, defeating Choate by three large margins: 25-10, 25-11 and 25-18. With the home crowd in attendance, the boys paved an easy path to the championship game against the only team they had lost to in the 2016 season: NMH.

Despite losing to NMH earlier, the team came out confident yet composed. In a tight first match, Exeter pulled out a four-point victory led by captain and senior Max Kirsch who hit nearly a perfect 1.000—a kill every time there was a set. After losing in the second set by just two points, the team rebounded and claimed the next two sets and the New England Championship.

“Being a New England champion is one of the most satisfying feelings, knowing that all the hard work the team put it paid off,” upper Ben Swett said.

Throughout the course of the season, the team faced its ups and downs—the loss to NMH being the culmination of the “down” portion. However, Kirsch said that these portions of the season helped the team regroup and reassess their chances at the championship, the ultimate goal. He identified the loss to NMH as “the best thing that could have happened to us.”

“[Although] the team will be losing many players next year including myself, I am extremely confident that our rising seniors will take on the challenge and come back even stronger."

Swett agreed. In the first four games leading up to the match against NMH, Big Red did not lose one set, winning 12. This dominance implanted the dangerous idea that the road to the championship would be easy and without challengers. The loss to NMH, Swett said, “showed us that we needed to keep working and listen to coach and do the drills that are tedious but necessary.”

“We were undefeated up until that point, and we started to get a little lazy in practice with the so called ‘little things,’” Kirsch said. “The ‘little things’ are what win and lose games, and our loss definitely brought a renewed focus and work ethic that we used to power us after that loss.”

One of these “little things” was the intensity that the sport of volleyball required. Prior to the NMH game, this intensity was lacking and often died down as Exeter faced easier competition. With easier competition came laziness and a lack of a motor. Postgraduate Adam Ahmed said that in games, the team “had to learn how to maintain our drive to win every game and keep our intensity up at all times.”

Senior and captain Kyle Xia added that in addition to the maintained intensity, positive support from teammates was a big learning point following the loss. “We had to learn to keep our energy up on the court and pick each other up no matter what happened,” he said. “Volleyball is mostly a mental game, so having supportive teammates that kept each other calm and composed was paramount to our victory.”

In all of this, the team credited the coach Bruce Shang who, according to upper Graham Rutledge, was instrumental to the team’s focus on “fundamentals [which were] unparalleled in the league and allowed [the team] to beat a big, athletic team like NMH easily.”

Kirsch added that “coach Shang is the man who deserves all of the credit for our success. He knows how and when to push buttons and also when to be patient and give space,” he said. “When you combine his coaching style with his unmatched knowledge of the game, you are bound to get positive results.”

Above all, however, Ahmed said that Shang became the “mentor and role model” of each of the players. “In all honesty, coach Shang was the best coach I have ever had and because of him, I want to keep playing and getting better at volleyball,” he said.

With the inspiring leadership of Shang and the persistence and hard work of members of the team, Exeter volleyball was bound for successful results. Having claimed its second consecutive championship, Big Red rolls on as the best boys’ volleyball team in New England.

Although most teams would revel in its success after such a feat, the boys’ volleyball team looks towards E/a and next season to repeat the wins they have accomplished thus far.

“[Although] the team will be losing many players next year including myself, I am extremely confident that our rising seniors will take on the challenge and come back even stronger,” Ahmed said. “I think a three-peat is well within our reach; we just have to keep working hard to get it.”

Kirsch also expressed his confidence in both his teammates and the program. “Two championships in the first three years of program history is no doubt a great start,” he said. “I know the program will continue to grow under coach Shang, and they certainly have the returners to add more championships in the years to come.”