Who are the Beasts?

The Beasts, Stuyvesant’s boys’ varsity volleyball team, lost for the second time in a row in the second round of the playoffs. While the result for the Beasts was average compared to previous years, their season was anything but normal. 

For the past three years, the Beasts have dominated their division. In both 2022 and 2023, the Beasts went unbeaten 10-0. Their next closest competitor in 2022, High School for Math, Science and Engineering (HSMSE), went 7-3, nowhere near close enough to challenge Stuyvesant. Even more impressive, zero league teams even won a single match against the Beasts during their regular season. Despite these impressive results, Stuyvesant has folded when faced with stiffer competition in the playoffs these last two seasons, losing in the first and second rounds, respectively. 

The 2024 season promised to be different. Most importantly, the league would be completely rearranged. Perennial losers High School of Environmental Science and Louis Brandeis High School were left behind as Stuyvesant moved into a stronger league with teams like Hunter College High School and Graphics Campus. 

The Beasts stood resolute in front of this new challenge and won their first three games. The strength of this new league was shown as the Beasts narrowly won 2-1 in two of their games during that stretch. However, in their fourth game and their first against Hunter, the Beasts fell 2-1, marking the first time in the last three years that the Beasts had lost a match in the regular season. Despite the loss though, junior Matthew Leung stood out with a game high of four aces. 

In the rest of the regular season, the Beasts only lost two more games, finishing in second in a brand new and more difficult league. Senior and co-captain Vincent Pan commented on the state of the new division, saying that “for the two years we played after Covid, we’ve easily achieved a perfect 10-0 record. However, this year, they created one Manhattan 2A league. As a result, Hunter and Manhattan Center were added to our league and they’ve been a greater challenge.”

The playoffs were always going to be more challenging, as the best from all across the city’s multiple leagues compete for the same trophy. In their first game against Information Technology High School, Stuyvesant scraped to a 25-23 win, but rallied in the second game to win the series convincingly. Pan came in clutch, stacking up an unbelievable 20 assists, almost double any other player. 

The Beasts’ downfall came in the second round of the playoffs against Bayside High School, where Stuyvesant limped to a 2-0 defeat. “Although we ultimately came up short, we played a really great game and overcame challenges we’ve been facing throughout the season,” Pan said.  

Overall, while the end result of the season was disappointing, the Beasts fought admirably to win second place in a hard division, which shows a consistency that, if maintained, could lead to even greater heights next year.