Boys volleyball started and ended playoffs May 4, losing to Richard Montgomery 3-0. Shortened practices and absent starters created less than ideal starting lineups in the regular season, which ended 5-7.

“As a team, we’ve been playing pretty strong,” junior captain Raymond Li said. “Often we haven’t had a full lineup so that’s resulted in some losses.”

Bulldogs lost to Blair, 3-0, May 2, reaching their full potential too late with rounds at 25-12, 25-17 and 25-21, along with several controversial calls from the referee.

“We did have some good plays like keeping some six point runs, and we could hit hard on them,” senior captain Lan Jiang said. “As a team we fell apart.”

The Bulldogs lost to Walter Johnson, 3-0, April 27 and to Sherwood 3-2 on CHS’ Senior Night April 29. Despite an attempt to catch up at the end of the fifth Sherwood set, CHS lost the last round 15-12.

“We played well, except the last few games, we weren’t awake,” Jiang said. “We made it slow. If we’d played it at our pace we could’ve won.”

With the absence of their setter senior captain Matthew Lu and libero senior Josh Tseng, the Bulldogs lost to Richard Montgomery, 3-0, April 14.

“We lost a couple of close ones and the guys would really love to have another chance at those,” coach Timothy Anderson said.

CHS had a win against Poolesville, 3-1, April 13, a loss to Watkins Mill, 3-2, April 8 and a win against Northwood, 3-0, April 6. Though Poolesville was a victory, the team was determined to address the issues.

“The first two games we missed a lot of serves,” junior Eugene Lin said. “I think [we need] more consistency. If we play like that every game then it’ll be a lot better.”

The Bulldogs have a tendency to be rusty in the beginning of games but usually come back with amazing plays, especially from junior Kevin Teng who is known for great serves and attacks.

“I think we did pretty well at the end [of Poolesville],” Li said. “We kind of rushed in the beginning but we pulled through. Everyone woke up.”

The Bulldogs lost to Wootton, 3-0, April 1, losing the individual rounds 25-14, 25-8 and 25-15. Wootton is currently number one in the county.

“We didn’t play as well as we could, but they are by far a good team,” Jiang said. “Even though they’re the best, we should’ve played our best.”

Three seniors, Tseng, Jiang and Lu, will be graduating next year, and the Bulldogs are getting a head start training the younger players to replace them.

“The younger players will be more than able to fill those new roles as seniors,” Anderson said. “The new players this year will definitely play a larger role too.”

As the Bulldogs headed into playoffs, they were not only physically prepared by training in all aspects in order to be well-rounded but also mentally prepared by keeping a positive attitude.

“Like all sports, volleyball is 50 percent mental,” Lu said. “If we get defeated mentally, we can’t win, but if we are able to stay positive, we are a very strong team.”