A Newsletter for the Wootton High School Boys Volleyball Community

4.04.2013

Wootton Makes a Splash at Poolesville

Patriots soar past Falcons, 25-3, 25-12, 25-16

"In fluid mechanics, a splash is a sudden disturbance to the otherwise quiescent free surface of a liquid (usually water). The disturbance is typically caused by a solid object suddenly hitting the surface." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splash_(fluid_mechanics)

The sudden disturbance on Poolesville's otherwise quiescent free surface gymnasium floor was the solid object of a volleyball put into motion by the force of mass and velocity supplied by Wootton's attackers.

How's that for a Wikipedia-referenced lead-in to a blog post? (groan).

Led by seniors Justin Fowler, Jeffrey Qiu, Henry Zhou and Arron Krotman, along with sophomore Richard Hum and juniors Paul Malinauskas, Cary Chin and Benjamin Wang, the Patriots took the first set by playing near error free volleyball. Several volleyball were crushed in a manner that seemed to leave "an expanding ring of disturbance propagating away from the impact site." (more Wikipedia-induced groaning is appropriate here)

Set two marked the return of senior middle hitter Charles Wang, who hobbled through preseason and missed the first match with an ankle injury. Freshman Henry Shu made his impressive high school debut with a high degree of hustle. Hum switched from middle to the outside, and Qiu showed his versatility on the court playing right side, replacing Malinauskas. Qiu and Malinauskas demonstrated Newton's Second Law of Motion (F=ma) by inflicting "the net external force on the volleyball equal to the mass of that body times its acceleration." (groan, then learn more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_(physics)). In other words, their smashes made more splashes.  Fowler ran the offense at a level above his all-county performance of last season.

Cary Chin took over setting duties in set three, with sophomores Adam Kaplan and Ethan Frymark making their season debut for the Patriots in the middle. Frymark and Kaplan created opportunities for themselves and teammates with aggressive play. Joining them were Shu on the outside and, in his debut, freshman Aleks Psurek on the right side. Veterans Qiu, Malinauskas and Ben Wang paced the Patriots before turning the set over to the younger players to close out the match. Chin provided capable leadership on the court by engaging all of the players in the offense.

With a nod to Newton's First Law of Motion, the Patriots hope to continue to move with constant velocity when they travel to Rockville High School on Wednesday, April 10 in a cross-town showdown with the Rams. First serve is 30 minutes after the end of the 5:15 pm coed match.

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