Overall, the girl’s volleyball season went well. This year has been more of a building year since the team graduated 6 seniors last year. Despite that challenge, the team still worked hard and came together. Next year will be even better because of all the hard work the team put in this year.

“I think our biggest thing to do in the off-season is getting down our fundamentals and the mental aspect of the game, that’s a huge thing. There were a couple of games we could have done better, but it’s just one of those learning curves if we didn’t struggle now, we wouldn’t have had that bonding,” Head Coach Chloe Foster said.

“They worked hard, and everybody improved. We were blocking, we were hitting well, moving, and communicating. It seemed since the first game people were frozen on the court and now they have become more comfortable with each other,” added Assistant Coach Lisa Tillema.

Both coaches agreed that both the Varsity and Junior Varsity teams improved over the course of the season. As the players got more comfortable with each other, the team dynamic improved and helped them win games. The team won 6 games and lost 13 this season. 

“This year definitely had a way different dynamic than last year cause we had 6 seniors last year and only one this year. But it certainly helped my leadership skills to help teach newer players who were not used to Varsity volleyball,” Anna Shapoval (‘23) said. 

“There always is a shift, Anna was a big presence for us so we have to navigate us stepping up into that role. The good thing about having a lot of sophomores and freshmen and they know each other to know who can step up,” Coach Foster said. 

Varsity certainly had many strengths. Throughout the games, the team would move past lost points and try not to feel defeated. Everyone could see the motivation and support the team had for themselves and each other. 

“Our strength was probably being able to move on even when times got rough, no matter how bad or well we played. We were always motivated,” said Foster.

However, there are still a few things that the team needs to work on. Based off of this year, Coach Foster has started planning what to work on.

“We went up against a lot of teams that were older, so maturity level. Working on that, recovering quicker, and not getting in our head will help the team,” Coach Foster said.

For the JV team, the biggest hurdle they had to face was attending practice. Apparently, practice attendance was irregular and that hurt their performance in games. 

“Practices were great. It was so fun, we practiced hard and had a good time. It would have been helpful if more of the players attended practice. There will be new rules next year,” Coach Tillema warned. 

A positive aspect that the JV team had was their attitudes. Their positivity tremendously helped because they always supported each other which showed during the games. If there was a mistake, the team came together to rally and support each other.

“I’m proud of their attitudes, I even had an official comment about how positive and helpful the girls were to each other,” Coach Tillema said.

This year may not have been ideal because most of Varsity was composed of newer players, but overall the team prevailed and proved they could overcome these challenges. Next year will show all the hard work the players put in this year.