Niwot's first boys volleyball team sweeps Mountain View to go 2-0 on season

Undefeated after two matches, Niwot, the St.Vrain School District's first-ever boys volleyball team, is looking like the kind of powerhouse possible when the talents of all seven of the district's high schools are combined.

Indeed, the "Niwot" portion of the varsity team has just one player who attends Niwot High School: senior, middle blocker, and Student Athlete of the Week Jack Klein, (14). "We start practice an hour later than other sports in order to give the boys time to travel here from their respective schools," said Coach John Miller, himself a health teacher and assistant girls volleyball coach at crosstown Silver Creek High School.

In their first ever match last week versus Thornton's Riverdale Ridge High School, Niwot took the first two games by scores of 25-9, and 25-17 before being edged (25-23) in the third game. That loss looks like a hiccup after the Cougars rallied to take the fourth game (25-11) and the team's been on a roll ever since.

Two nights later in their home opener, the Cougars continued their winning ways with a convincing 3-game sweep of Loveland's Mountain View High School. They now hold an impressive 2-0 record in Northern 1 League going into the second week of the season.

On the court early for Niwot were Klein and juniors Max Owens, who leads the team with seven blocks, and Sage Xiong, who leads the team with 31 assists. Others in the starting lineup were sophomores Cooper Chudleigh and team "kill" leader, Jenu Ngialah, who leads the team with 15 kills, and freshman and team leader in digs (19) and serving aces (7), libero Gabe Victor.

Niwot came out on fire, running the score up to 14-3 before prevailing 25-10 in the first game against Mountain View. In the second game, with relief coming from Senior Kaiden Box, junior Ronan Zachemsky, and senior Erik West. Niwot looked nearly as dominant, winning by a score of 25-14. Liberal substitutions by Niwot in game three after the Cougars jumped out to a 10-point lead made things a little more interesting as seniors Luke Xu and Ben Lock and freshman Diego Kheng got in the game and closed things out by the much closer score of 25-19.

Play resumes Tuesday March 14 at home versus 3-1 Thornton in what Coach Miller believes will "be a good challenge." After the Thursday game, the coach said he "feels good. The team has some growing pains to work through but the boys are having fun. It should be fun. If it's not fun, I'm doing something wrong."