RANCHO CORDOVA, CA (MPG) - Head coach Joe Smith and the Cordova boy’s volleyball team are well into the 2022-23 Greater Sacramento League season. Currently the team has a record of 9 wins and 13 losses with 4 league matches still to play. Coach Smith is hopeful that his team can return to the playoffs this year but that will be determined by whether they are able to play their best volleyball down the stretch.

This year’s team is made up of 5 seniors and 10 juniors. Their senior players this year are Waqas Nuristani, Tuan Hoang, Evan Lee, Shawn Mendoza and Mark Pavlus. Outside hitters Lee and Nuristani have stepped up all season and have played a pivotal role in most of their victories. “Evan and Waqas have put in a ton of work this season to help carry us through some hard games”, said Coach Smith.

The program has had its share of challenges, as most of the new players coming out for the team have never played for club teams before. This lack of expertise makes it very difficult to build a program that relies on players with more experience at the freshman and sophomore level. Coach Smith said, “The season has been a lot of fun so far. We took on a lot of new players this year and have seen some tremendous growth. It really seems like we are starting to build a program at Cordova that the players are proud to play for.”

This year’s squad has the drive and enthusiasm to get better and better. I could see this when after their last match against West Campus the team stayed afterwards to put in more practice time. Other players that have stepped up and have shown great improvement this season are juniors Kyle Cook, Ruvim Kravchuk, Edwin Ramirez and Oscar Flores.

Matches are very fast paced and exciting to watch. Come on out and cheer your Cordova Lancers into the playoffs. Their final 2 home matches are on Tuesday, April 25^th and Thursday, April 27^th in the auxiliary gym and start at 6:00 p.m.

Go Big Red!