As the country鈥檚 education systems strive to move forward in a post-pandemic world, Wells athletes have been waiting in eager anticipation for the return of inter-school competition. This week, our Seahawk Volleyball teams excitedly opened their 2022-2023 campaigns with matches scheduled against some very familiar rivals.

VARSITY SEASON OPENER AGAINST TRADITIONAL RIVAL ICS

On Thursday, September 8, both our boys and girls varsity volleyball teams took the 鈥渜uick鈥� drive to International Community School Bangkok (ICS) to start off their season. A young team with no senior leaders, our boys started out visibly nervous, dropping their first set to a much more confident ICS Eagles team. However, that early setback was enough to light a fire under everyone as the Seahawks dominated sets 2 and 3. After giving our novice players some game time in set 4 allowing ICS to tie it up at 2 sets apiece, our starting team put it away in the tiebreaker set to win the match at 3-2 (16-25, 25-16, 25-16, 23-25, 15-5).

Our varsity girls, also made up of mostly young players, showed clear improvement over previous years and pushed the much taller ICS team to a tiebreaker set as well. However, after a series of back-and-forth rallies, our Lady Seahawks came up just short, losing the tiebreaker, 15-17, and the match, 2-3.

JV TEAMS GO UNDEFEATED AGAINST POWERHOUSE SCHOOLS ISB AND NIST

On the very next day, Friday, September 9, it was our junior varsity volleyball teams opening their seasons at a tri-school meet hosted by 扣扣传媒 (ISB) in Nonthaburi. Being very young with all players being Grade 9 and below, the teams entered the meet anxious and untested. However, after the dust settled, both teams came out victorious and, for now, undefeated.

On the boys side of the gym, our Seahawks had to come from behind in set 1 before dominating set 2, first winning against the ISB Panthers, 2-0 (25-21, 25-17). Their second match was very similar, starting slow and clawing their way back in set 1 before dominating in set 2, defeating the NIST International School Falcons, 2-0 (25-23, 25-16).

The girls matches were much closer with the Lady Seahawks prevailing in a tiebreaker to defeat host ISB, 2-1. And in the second match against NIST, our girls were down 21-23 in set 2 before surging at the end with 4 straight points to win the set 25-23, and the match, 2-0.

INTRODUCING THE TEAMS

VARSITY BOYS – Sena Nakamura (Gr 11, Setter/Outside Hitter), Asahi Fukuura (Gr 11, Setter/Middle Blocker), Bijay Pun (Gr 11, OH), Kenshin Ushikubo (Gr 11, OH), Haruto Kagei (Gr 11, MB), Japan Kittayachaiyawat (Gr 11, OH), Pema Thinlay (Gr 11, OH), Rafael Jung (Gr 10, OH), Rishi Sharma (Gr 10, Libero)

VARSITY GIRLS – Azra Omur (Gr 12, MB/OH), Tingting Hemmondharop (Gr 12, MB), Bianca Castillo (Gr 11, Libero), Ally Gu (Gr 10, OH), Preme Mongkolprasert (Gr 10, OH), Jimin An (Gr 10, OH), Alia Abdelwahab (Gr 9, Setter), Rishika Bhattacharya (Gr 8, Setter)

JV BOYS – Alan Khorana (Gr 9, Setter/OH), Sharan Khorana (Gr 9, OH/MB), Leo Rhie (Gr 9, OH), Veeranan Luthra (Gr 9, Libero/OH), Aoi Wakahara (Gr 9, Setter/OH), Omar Abdelwahab (Gr 8, Setter), Don Charoenvisal (Gr 8, MB), Devansh Barnwal (Gr 8, OH), Vivan Jain (Gr 8, OH), Junyoung Moon (Gr 7, OH/MB), Jason Moon (Gr 6, Setter)

JV GIRLS – Alia Abdelwahab (Gr 9, Setter), Anne Fukuura (Gr 9, Libero/Setter), Alisa Kupari (Gr 9, OH/MB), Hayeon Kim (Gr 9, OH), Mayu Suenaga (Gr 9, OH), Yebin Sung (Gr 9, Libero), Fehmiya Syeda (Gr 9, OH), Manao Yasaki (Gr 9, OH), Hrishika Bhattacharya (Gr 8, Setter), Aom Vetchayanvivat (Gr 8, OH/Setter), Fleur Varntjes (Gr 8, OH)

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It鈥檚 been three years since the host Panthers from the 扣扣传媒 (ISB) has won its own tournament, beating Wells in 2016 in the Seahawk鈥檚 debut in the championship match. Since then, Wells has reached AND won the championship match each year, against two different international schools from Singapore 鈥� United World College East (UWCE) in 2017 and Stamford American International School (SAIS) in 2018.

However, after ISB went undefeated in their pool, and earned a spot in the finals after a win against Bangkok Pattana School (BPS) in the semi-finals, urged on by a boisterous crowd screaming, 鈥淭his is OUR house!鈥� — the hungry Panthers were poised to reclaim the throne.

But our Seahawks would have NO SUCH THING!

With just one senior, the young Seahawks showed the mental maturity and emotional fortitude to stave off stiff challenges in pool play, beating ICS Bangkok, 2-0 (25-20, 25-10); SAIS, 2-1 (25-13, 24-26, 17-15); and BPS, 2-1 (23-25, 25-18, 15-11). They then survived a tough semi-final match-up against another Singapore school, United World College Dover (UWCD), beating them 2-1 (18-25, 25-23, 15-13).

In the end, Wells had just a bit more energy, a bit more depth on the bench, and a bit more heart to outlast ISB, winning 2-0 (26-24, 27-25) in two nail-biting, overtime sets, to complete the 鈥渢hree-peat鈥� championship run.

The Seahawks were led by tri-captains Insee Akarapan (c/o 2020), Corey Beer (c/o 2021), and Perth Vichitchoti (c/o 2021). Other members of the squad include Pat Pinsrisirirath, Kohyo Miyajima, Ronnie Kwok, Justin Omland, and Phurin Kosumapinun (c/o 2021); and MJ Caunan, Jr., Kendrick Acda, Herb Udompholvanich, Gabriel Xumsai Na Ayudhaya, Shiva Chandnani, and Time Phatigulsate (c/o 2022). Head Coach – Ray de la Pena and Asst. Coach – Rhyll Catangcatang.

AISAA Champions

In the second tournament, held all day Sunday, a condensed version of the varsity boys squad took on other AISAA teams, as well as a few visiting teams. Pool play turned out to be a cakewalk as Wells easily beat Berkeley International School, 2-0 (25-22, 25-12); King Mongkut International Demonstration School (KMIDS), 2-0 (25-9, 25-10); KIS, 2-0 (25-16, 25-23); and the International School of the Eastern Seaboard (ISE), 2-0 (25-17, 25-14). In the knock-out matches, Wells beat Ekamai International School (EIS), 2-0 (25-12, 25-14) and, finally, KIS, 2-0 (25-14, 25-9) to repeat as champions. Wells also won the AISAA Tournament championships in 2017 and 2018.

Lady Seahawks also in action over weekend

Also, playing in the tournaments were the Wells varsity girls who played hard and showed much improvement since the beginning of the season. In pool play of the ISB tournament, the Lady Seahawks won two matches; first to ICS Bangkok, 2-1; then International School of Ho Chi Minh City (ISHCMC) from Vietnam. The girls ended the tournament in 4^th place.

At the AISAA tournament, the girls went 3-1 in pool play, but fell in the semi-finals to Concordian. The girls ended in 3^rd place.

Both teams now have over a month to prepare for their final tournaments of the season against member schools of the ASEAN Schools Athletic Conference (ASAC), coming up at the beginning in November.

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