By Alan Der OHANNESSIAN

In Falcon volleyball, CV won 3 sets to 1 in their league opening match against San Marino on March 9. Having won their last match against Van Nuys during the Redondo pre-season tournament, the Falcons were confident heading into the contest.

It was the best of five: the winner of the first three sets wins the contest.

It was a tight first set as the Falcons got a comfortable lead early in the game at 12-6. However, the Titans battled back to win the next six to tie the game.

The Falcons went on a four-point run to regain the lead at 18-14 as Ian Paprocki hit a “killer,” a shot that can’t be responded to that slammed Titan Daniel Chee in the face. Unfortunately, a number of errors including lack of Falcon communication and good Titan defense helped San Marino to level the match at 26.

The Titans were able to close the first set 28-26 as defensive specialist Falcon Eric Seo hit a fault serve that went out of bounds, followed by a wide hit from outside hitter Jun Kim.

The tense match continued into the second set.

Both teams went neck and neck up to the 16^th point as they were nodded at eight. However, similar to the earlier game, the Falcons started to pull away, grabbing a four-point lead 16-11 after Titan middle back Andrew Boon couldn’t handle a spike. But the Titans regrouped, battling back to tie the game at 23 after being down as much as six. The Falcons avoided a similar fate as the first, taking the second set 25-23 to tie the match at one set a piece.

But the Falcons didn’t seem to learn from their mistakes and in fact were repeating some as they lost a seven-point lead. With a Falcon dominance 11-4, the Titans chipped away to make it a three-point game at 15-12. The Falcons then regained a five-point lead thanks to a Wesley Cormier spike 19-14.

The Falcons extended it to 23-17 when outside hitter Nick Barton spiked into the net. However, the Titans weren’t going to give it away, and surged forward to 23. The Falcons held their nerve, ending up winning the next two as Paprocki and Logan Shapiro made consecutive kills to finish the third set 25-23.

The final set was about redemption, as the Falcons got an early lead and never looked back. At 10-6, Paprocki made another kill for CV, spurring a seven-point run, which including a Titan technical error, to extend the Falcon advantage 17-6.  The Titans made one last push but couldn’t get closer than seven points as the Falcons won the third and decisive set 25-16.

Head Coach John Nelson said the key was getting the team fired up for the match adding that he would like to see more consistency on a regular basis in the next match.

The Falcons next play at Hart High School on Wednesday, March 16 at 5:00 p.m.