The week of January 12th, over a hundred boys tried out for the volleyball team, yet only 11 made the team, with 4 making the practice team. Tryouts included running, serving, and receiving using a butterfly drill; setting and hitting were paired. After an intense 3 days, the list of students who made the team was released to the school.
The B team consisted of Ashmit Chitkara, Hrishi Dattani, Hunter Drake, Manyu Ganjerla, Joven Harika, Aaron Lee, Dylan Li, Ben Lubrin, Arjun Palukuri, Moh Shokran Razaye, and Vivisvan Vashi. The practice team had Mihir Chourey, Miles Kouzmov, Jace Le, and Colin Liang.
The season lasted about 5 weeks, from late January to the end of February. Practices were coached by Albert Lee who is a coach at Emerald High School were on Mondays and Wednesdays from 3:15 pm to 4:30 pm. Games were on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and the time was based on whether the game was home or away. For away games, the team was released at 2:45 pm so they would have time to get to another school. For home games, the team didn’t require an early release because they were playing at Fallon.
In games, if the team was serving, they would have 3 in the front and 3 in the back. If the opposing team had possession, the hitter, also known as the top left, would roll back to make it easier to receive the ball, so the position would be 2 in the front and 4 in the back.
In practice, the team ran to warm up and then got into drills. Drills consisted of serving, passing, setting, hitting, receiving, and using all 3 of the touches used in games or scrimmages. For serving, the players played survivor, meaning the last one to miss a serve wins. To pass, one of the assistant coaches, Annika Maranan, threw a ball at random, and players had to pass it forward to the current setter, which led to practice setting. With the set, each player would take turns by rotating after hitting the ball. During scrimmages, players would practice receiving the ball. Some of the girls from the girls’ volleyball team came and assisted the boys during practices.
The team persevered through tough teams like Wells due to them having a strong hitter. The team won the very first game of the season. Ashmit Chitkara, who played on the team, said, “We couldn’t have won without the tall people.”
The B team started and ended strong. They played 4 different schools twice, with a total of 8 games. Fallon faced off against Hart Middle School, Harvest Park, Cottonwood Creek, Pleasanton Middle School, and Wells Middle School. The B team beat Hart once, Harvest once, Cottonwood once, Pleasanton twice, and Wells once. According to Hrishi Dattani, “The volleyball season went well in the beginning. As the season went on, it started to fall apart. Overall, the 2025-2026 Fallon Boys B volleyball team had a successful season.
