On a Monday evening that featured a downpour of rain, the Santa Clara Bruins varsity volleyball squad almost weathered the Cupertino storm. With the first-place Pioneers visiting the Bruins, Santa Clara looked to avenge an early-season loss. The second-place Bruins fell to Cupertino in straight sets (25-23, 25-21, 25-21) back on Sept. 23.

This time around, the first two sets were incredibly disappointing for fans of the home team. Santa Clara dropped the first set 25-12 and didn’t fare all that much better in the second stanza, losing 25-14. The hopes for revenge on this rain-soaked evening looked washed out to say the least. 

Seemingly out of nowhere, the metaphorical sun started beaming down on the Bruins. A complete shift in energy level infused the Bruins’ roster. Impressive serving and setting from senior Linnea Martin, middle hitting from Sitara Gunapu, outside hitting from Naomi Hunt and defense from Ninya Udinoor upped the tempo. 

“We talked about communication a lot,” chimed Martin on how the Bruins were able to flip the script and force a fifth set despite losing the first two periods by a large margin. “The first two sets we were so quiet and in the third set we fixed our mistakes.” 

“I think our energy changed,” added Udinoor. “In the beginning, the whole gym was really quiet; nobody was talking. We talked about being louder and going into the third set we were just like, ‘ok, let’s scream after every ball and be really loud,’ and that really helped. The overall energy was just a lot higher; our team definitely feeds off of energy.” 

The Bruins’ enthusiasm teetered into excessive territory as Santa Clara received a rare yellow card warning. Perhaps, though, walking that fine line was needed to get the team back in the game. Bruins Head Coach Timothy Graton certainly would have liked the energy to have kicked in much sooner. 

“We kind of had the same philosophy the entire game from the get-go, but we just started out so slow,” noted Graton after the match. “My team excels really well when we are running our offense, everyone is going up to attack, spreading out the offense. Unfortunately, in the beginning, we kind of go back to bad habits. But once they got warm, they started doing exactly what the plan was and it showed in the third and fourth set.”

In the third and fourth sets, the Bruins appeared like a completely different team. The execution on serve defense, serving on offense, and pass placement were all elevated in the third and fourth sets. Santa Clara built a 17-11 lead in the third stanza, eventually holding onto a 25-22 set win. They backed it up with an equally impressive fourth frame, taking a 14-14 score and turning it into a 22-16 mark, scoring eight out of the game’s 10 points, to take control of the set. Three of those eight points came via aces, one from Martin and two from Ariel Tepora. Eventually, the Bruins would tie the match up at two sets apiece with a 25-19 victory. 

Cupertino would rebound to take the fifth set by a 15-11 final, all but clinching first place in league at 9-1. The Bruins fall to 7-3, but maintain their second-place spot. In order to hold onto second place, though, they must defeat Gunn for a second time this season.