Boys volleyball: Archie Williams tops Tam in five to remain unbeaten in MCAL
There’s a rivalry budding between the boys volleyball teams at Archie Williams and Tam High. The two teams entered the season with a number of club players and lofty expectations and have lived up to that billing.
The Peregrine Falcons pulled out a dramatic five-set victory at home on Tuesday night — 27-25, 25-20, 24-26, 24-26, 15-6 — to maintain their unbeaten league record and avenge a tournament loss to Tam this past weekend.
“Half of their team and half of our team play on the same club team so it just made it all the more competitive,” Archie Williams setter Owen Johnson said. “There’s a little bit of animosity between us. They just beat us a couple days ago and that really ticked us off.”
Both teams displayed resiliency as Archie Williams (14-2, 8-0 MCAL) fell behind early in the first two sets before rallying to win both. Tam (16-2, 7-2) responded by taking the next two, despite being two points away from dropping the match in the fourth set.
“We had a few self-inflicted errors and that definitely gave them a bit of momentum and definitely a bit of a lead but we battled back and we cleaned up the errors,” Johnson said. “We got more locked in mentally and we just cleaned up the self-inflicted errors. The passing got cleaned up and we were running our offense.”
Tam led for the majority of the third set but needed to win some big points late to prevent Archie Williams from sweeping. Tam got late kills from Alex Garcia, Luke Pielert and Will Hatch then an ace on set point by Lourenco Pereira to force a fourth set.
“(Tam has) got such a big block and when we don’t hit well, when we hit the ball into the net or off the block, it’s tough for us,” Jones said. “They also started to really tip and their tip game was strong. We were going up to block and they were tipping the heck out of it.”
The fourth set was a nip-and-tuck affair, with neither team leading by more than three points. This time Tam needed a late rally, trailing 23-21 before winning five of the next six points to force a fifth set.
Archie Williams – down two starters in middle blocker Kaleb Simmons and Alexander Lucich – got key kills late in the fifth set from Zach Wulff and Drew Samway before Tam closed the match with three consecutive hitting errors.
Johnson had 40 assists and set a variety of hitters as four Peregrine Falcons finished with double-digit kills. Wulff had a team-high 16 kills, Will Gustafson added 12 and Jordy Freeman and Michael Riecken had 11 each.
“Our boys stepped up and played absolutely fantastic and we love that,” Johnson said. “We’re a very deep team and we showed that tonight.”
Tam’s only two losses on the season have both come in MCAL play against Archie Williams. The Peregrine Falcons won 3-0 early in the season in Mill Valley then the Red-tailed Hawks pulled out a 2-0 victory on Saturday in the semifinals of the Rancho Cotate Tournament.
Although the MCAL had been largely dominated by Redwood and Marin Catholic in the years leading up to the pandemic, both Archie Williams and Tam entered this season expected to be the teams to beat.
“I think we kind of knew that coming in because these are the two programs that have the most kids that play club,” Jones said. “We kind of expected these would be the two teams and so far it’s proven out. West County is pretty good and Redwood is coming along so you never really know.”
Archie Williams has been a perennial playoff team and was the dominant team in the MCAL from 2002 until 2015. Tam’s last regular-season title came in 2006.
“Tam boys volleyball is on the rise,” Tam coach Jason Souza said via email. “Many of our student-athletes are committed to playing club in the offseason to sharpen their competitive edge.”