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PROVIDENCE – Initially, Tolman coach Neil Nachbar viewed Monday’s boys volleyball matchup against Classical as a prime chance to see where his club ranked among the Division II hierarchy.
Instead, Nachbar was forced to reshuffle his lineup due to disciplinary reasons, sitting a couple of starters and giving their spots to a pair of junior-varsity contributors who were thrown into the fire against a Purple outfit that entered play with a 10-2 record.
Despite their unexpected entry into the starting group, Nachbar felt sophomore Saimer Nieves and freshman Isai Prince acquitted themselves just fine. Unfortunately, the Tigers fell into a two-games-to-none hole that proved too much to overcome as the Purple won in four games by scores of 25-19, 25-16, 21-25, 25-16.
“To their credit, I thought they did a great job. I threw them into the fire with not a lot of notice. They had no time to prepare themselves mentally,” Nachbar said about Nieves and Prince. “Not only did those two handle themselves well, but so did the other four varsity players given the situation. They didn’t let it affect their focus. Their attitude was, “This is our lineup, let’s go with it and play as hard as we can.’
“I was very pleased with how hard we played given the circumstances,” Nachbar said.
The benched Tolman starters were granted permission to rejoin the action for the third game, which saw the Tigers (84, Division II) pull away after the score was tied at 20-20. Classical jumped out to a 15-5 lead in the fourth game and never looked back en route to winning for the fourth time in five matches.
“Not to make excuses, but I thought using a different lineup for the first two games affected for the rest of the match,” Nachbar said.
Joshua Goncalves once again anchored Tolman’s attack as the senior finished with 17 kills. Enrique Aldana, a sophomore, handed out 33 assists. The Tigers will play their final home match of the regular season on Tuesday night when Lincoln pays a visit to Donaldson Gymnasium.