Malden High Boys Volleyball finishes with best record of any Tornado team—maybe ever

Tornado squad hosts St. John’s Prep (S) in MIAA Division 1 State Tournament TODAY, 4:00 p.m.

Blue and Gold

Malden HS Student Newspaper

The Malden High School Varsity Boys Volleyball Team put together one of the most successful and winningest seasons of all time in Tornado sports history— maybe the best ever!

The team’s 19-1 final regular season record included a 13-game winning streak which has propelled them to #14 in the state power rankings.

Malden High will host St. John’s of Shrewsbury in the first round of the MIAA Division 1 State Boys Volleyball Tournament today at 4:00 p.m. at the Finn Gym.

Coach Dan Jurkowski said this this season has been rewarding overall because the team knew what was at stake from the beginning and they have been ready for success. Jurkowski wants to focus all of his energy on this team to see how far they can go.
After losing to O’Bryant early on, Jurkowski believes that the team grew more. “We realized that maybe we weren’t as good as we thought we were so we needed to get better. And then today, we came back and played O’Bryant again, we won 3-1, so it was good.” Jurkowski said.
Jurkowski said that captains Kingston Chen and Yoji Yonetani hold everyone on the team accountable and make sure everyone shows up to practice on time and prepared. “They’re just a group that’s super motivated right now.”
Chen said, “Everyone puts a part into their team and steps up as a player. I feel like I don’t need to motivate my team to go to practice every day. I don’t need them to like performing; I don’t need them to do the basics. They do more than enough.”
Chen said he had fun during his last season with this team. “I felt like everyone exceeded our expectations.” He said.
Yonetani said, “I knew that this year we were going to have a really good team. So I was already excited about that.” To prepare for states, Yonetani said, “We’ll just keep playing as hard as we did today. Keep the intensity and just have fun, volleyball is all about having fun.”
Senior Jason Chen said that this season was fun but also stressful. “I’ll miss it for sure but I’m trying to make the most of it right now.”