In a game that calls for height and focuses on power plays, the boys’ volleyball team has taken a different approach and has found their stride for the upcoming season.

“We can’t rely on big game and power to win,” senior Jacob Zazzeron said. “We’re a small team, so we have to focus a lot on defense. I think that’s our strength: our defense and our grit.”

The boys’ focus when it comes to defense is reading the other team’s movements and reacting to their decisions.

“We stay true to our fundamentals and don’t try to overpower other teams because we know we can’t,” junior Nate Orwig said.

Although this year’s team is younger and less experienced than last year’s, having only had a few days of practice at the start of the season, the boys have managed to smoothly complete drills and plays.

“There’s a clear advantage if you have three guys over 6 feet in the front, and we don’t, but that’s not to say we can’t win,” Zazzeron said.

Coach Tahan Minakov, who played at the junior Olympics, has been coaching at Redwood for 10 years. Under Minakov’s lead, the team has unified quickly, even after losing many of their starting players from last year.

“Everything [Minakov] does is deliberate to make us better as a team,” Zazzeron said. “I don’t have any doubt in him.”

Zazzeron said the team has progressed noticeably faster than last year by discovering their strengths and noting their weaknesses. With three freshmen and four sophomores on the team, many players are experiencing the world of volleyball for the first time.

“The first few weeks are going to be a shock to the new kids just because of how fast the game moves, and we have to be cautious of that,” Zazzeron said. “We have to keep them calm and

remind them that it gets easier.”

According to Orwig, staying calm during the games is important.

“There’s a lot of ups and downs during the game in volleyball,” Orwig said.  “It’s much harder for [the new players] to get the mentality that whatever you did last point doesn’t matter.”

Not only have the players improved individually on the court, the team has improved as a whole to create a strong team defense.

“You grow together just by being right next to each other in a small area all the time,” Orwig said. “We all trust each other, we all let each other play the kind of game that we want to, and that separates us [from other teams].”

The team’s next game is Friday, March 27 against Drake at 5:00 p.m.