With the mass exodus of seniors from last year’s team, the girls volleyball team is revamping in hopes of bringing back the momentum from last season and building upon it.
As a result, the team is counting on upperclassmen to continue the team’s legacy. Some of the key pieces of the team include senior captains Veronica Ballas, Caroline Hogan and Emma Hanes. Head coach Lauren Gillon hopes that the older girls’ experience can help motivate the underclassmen.
With the team being on the younger side, many players have had to up their game when necessary and make it easier along with helping each other.
“I think they all stepped up. I mean it’s a big task to fill having five seniors graduate,” Gillon said.
With almost half of last season’s team gone, this year’s team has many underclassmen. That can make it difficult for a coach to have so many younger athletes but Gillon seems to have no issue with it, instead she tries to look for bright spots on her team.
“We have a lot of talent, we have good energy and we have girls that want to compete. It’s just keeping all aspects of the game as consistent as possible,” Gillon said.
Playing a varsity sport as a freshman is never gonna be easy, and even for people like opposite hitter Hadley Lichty who’s been attending games for years, adapting to the game at a high school level is not the only challenge. It is just as difficult to adapt to the amount of time and dedication needed to play a varsity sport.
“The hardest part of being on the team is managing the amount of practices and games while also getting my school work done,” Lichty said.
The team finding chemistry with one another plays a huge role in their success. The girls having the ability to communicate with one another makes the games so much easier.
“We have great team chemistry and we all have a really good bond with each other. Everyone has a good spirit and wants to be there which makes playing with everyone fun,” sophomore setter Anna Hege said.
Gillon hopes to keep building the foundation of this team even more and continue to reach some of the goals they have set for this season.
“Some of our goals this season include to finish in the top three in the CPC and we really wanna focus on energy, effort and consistency in play,” Gillon said.
With a 12-5 record thus far and a 3rd place ranking in the conference, the team is looking to finish the season off strong with five games remaining (Glenn, Reagan, Davie, R.J. Reynolds and East Forsyth) until the conference tournament begins on Oct. 16.
