Merced Union High School District

A realistic goal for a good high school team is aiming for a league championship and possibly making a run at a section title. It’s very rare when a team can realistically put a state championship on their list of goals. The Livingston High boys volleyball team is one of those rare teams.

 

Ask the players and they’ll make it clear what their ultimate goal is this year. “We want to win state,” said senior Gurvir Singh. “We want to win it all and bring it all home.”

 

The Wolves were one win away from winning a state championship last year, finishing as the runner-up after a 3-1 loss to Mater Dei Catholic in the CIF Division IV championship at Fresno City College. Livingston returns the bulk of that team back this season and hopes to get back on the big stage. 

 

“I have been coaching for a long time and I have been lucky to coach some special teams over the years,” said Livingston coach Mike Alvernaz. “This group of players is special. To get a group of young men to play for each other and support each other is rare but they do and they enjoy playing. Also, they listen and learn and that makes coaching them fun and easy. These types of players don't come around very often and I am glad I am able to coach them.”

 

Alvernaz calls this group a generational team, one that rarely comes around, especially at a small public school like Livingston. The Wolves swept Merced 25-17, 25-11, 25-21 on Monday night to improve to 5-3 this season. Alvernaz has beefed up their schedule to load games against bigger, talented teams.  The Wolves just went 3-3 at the Sanger Slam this past weekend where they picked up losses against teams like Clovis North, Carlmont and Bishop O’Dowd. 

 

“We know we have the same squad coming in and we’re determined to get back to where we left off,” said senior Navjot Sakhon, who recorded eight kills and six digs against Merced. “We had a little slow start in the beginning. We had to get back into our rhythm, but I think we’re getting there.”

 

The Wolves will play tough competition in Ripon Christian and Laguna Creek before Western Athletic Conference play begins next week when Livingston will begin its quest for a fifth consecutive league championship. 

 

“We scheduled some tough teams this year to help us prepare for our run this year and going to play in the Sanger Slam was very helpful to see where we need to be,” Alvernaz said. “It was good to play some of the higher division teams and see where we need to improve on and also how we stacked up against them. I felt we played well and we were in every match. Talking to some of the coaches at the tournament, they were surprised about how well we played them.”

 

The Wolves displayed their firepower against Merced with Singh racking up 16 kills and fellow senior high flyer Bradley Kaji finishing with 10 kills and three blocks. Senior setter Shabadjot Kaloya orchestrated the offense with 22 assists. 

 

Shabadjot says this is a close-knit team that has been playing together for years. “We’ve been playing together since our freshmen year, we’ve built that chemistry together,” he said. “We come in with a lot of energy and we all feel really comfortable with each other.”

 

Last year the Wolves got a taste for playing in big postseason matches and are hungry to take that journey again. “This team feels that there is some unfinished business to take care of,” Alvernaz said. “Losing in sections was very frustrating for this group and they want to get back there to make up for last year. Also, we felt that we did not put our best foot forward in state and that is also bugging this team. Over the summer we talked about getting back there and that is our goal as a team and during the first week of practice you can tell that they knew what the overall goal is for them.”

 

It’s definitely a group that doesn’t lack motivation. “I think that motivates us more because we know what we can do,  we know we can play at that level,” Sakhon said. Singh says the Wolves will be prepared when the playoffs come around. “I think going against tough teams, we can get some of the losses out of the way,” he said. “But come playoffs, we’ll be ready…come state, we’ll be ready.”

Shawn Jansne is the MUHSD Program Manager Digital Media. He can be reached at Sjansen@muhsd.org.