November 1, 2023 by Eliza Krackeler (‘24)
On Monday, October 30, 2023, Saratoga Boys Varsity Volleyball faced Colonie away for the single elimination Sectionals match. What could be regarded as a mere stepping stone on Toga’s road to the finals was in reality a hard-won battle worthy of its own moment in the spotlight.
Toga earned a couple points at the outset to maintain a neck and neck score with the opposing team. But the success found early on in the set began to slip away as Colonie, reliant on a few consistent hitters, began to pull ahead. Between points, Patrick McKinley, a senior and co-captain for Saratoga, continued to offer words of advice to the other players on the court. McKinley said, “I felt like we needed to come together as a team more because no one wanted to end our season tonight.”
And something McKinley said must have worked. Because even though Toga ended up losing the first set, they came back and gave Colonie a run for their money as the game came to a close. McKinley delivered several well-placed sets to the left side with Brayden Kilinski, a junior and one of Toga’s outside hitters, consistently threading the ball between the opposing blockers’ hands, placing it in the shadows of Colonie’s front row.
In contrast with set one, the team was well rewarded for their hard work in the second game. Mr. Brown, coach of the Saratoga Boys Varsity Volleyball team, saw a huge improvement in the team’s cohesion going into this set. Brown said, “We just started playing smarter. We were putting the ball deeper in the court as they [Colonie] were moving their defense way up.”
But it was by no means an easy win. Toga and Colonie traded points back and forth, forcing the score higher until it surpassed the usual 25-point cutoff. Needing to win by two, the two teams fought hard, continuing past 25 for 18 more rallies. Coach Brown said, “It was nerve wracking to watch, especially needing that set to tie it up.”
The final score settled at 35-33 in Saratoga’s favor. The team celebrated as they went to switch sides, the energy at an all-time high. But confidence alone clearly wasn’t enough to carry them through to the next set. Parker Wilcox, a senior and member of Toga’s volleyball team, was instrumental in keeping spirits alive. He said it came to down to “yelling at the top of my lungs on every point and chirping the other team from the bench.”
Just as in the recent tournament against Bethlehem, Wilcox proved his worth again in the fourth set. He said, “During time outs I try my best to come up with something to say to the players to get them going.” One of his strong suits, Toga took his words of wisdom and ran with them. The team came out of the gates strong in game four and finished in a similar manner to tie the set score 2-2.
With pressures mounting high, the players of Saratoga knew they needed to lock in for the final game. Toga ran a 5-1 system here, a pattern reliant on one setter. In this case, it was McKinley at the helm. McKinley said, “I was ready for it when we went to it. I felt that it helped the team come together more so and helped lift our spirits to help us come back and win.”
Aside from McKinley’s significant contributions, Peter Krackeler, junior and co-captain of Saratoga, really stepped up to lead the team. Throughout the match, Colonie’s hitters proved difficult to defend against. But nowhere near impossible. McKinley said, “Peter Krackeler was a force all the way around the court, passing in the back row and his swings kept the team hype.”
After the switch at 8 points, Saratoga took off. Kilinski took a step back and allowed Krackeler to take his place, and Saratoga dominated the rest of the game. The set ended with a decisive kill from Ryan Clancy, a junior at SSHS and middle blocker for Toga. His confidence was clear as he walked onto the court, as if he had known the outcome of the point days beforehand.
With a win in 5 under their belt, Toga looks ahead to the Bethlehem game tonight, November 1st, at Rensselaer High. Historically, Saratoga has experienced only a taste of sectional success. With no Saratoga Varsity Boys Volleyball team ever making the finals, this year’s team hopes to make history. McKinley said, of the upcoming game, “Overall I think we need to just play our hearts out.”