Q: What position do you play?
Rubel: Outside.
Q: When did you start playing volleyball?
Rubel: Third or fourth grade.
Q: What made you want to start?
Rubel: When I was younger, I played a whole bunch of sports, and it was the next one that I could play. I was able to play in fourth grade, so I just tried it.
Q: Okay, so what’s made you stick with it?
Rubel: I don’t really know. I just kind of clicked with it whenever I first tried it, and I thought it was really fun. And I don’t know, I just kind of kept going and fell in love with it.
Q: What challenges have you faced as a high school student-athlete?
Rubel: Definitely balancing sports, school, and social life. It’s definitely been hard. It’s kind of easier in school than club [volleyball] because in school, I get to play with my best friends, and so I get to see them, and that helps with social-wise. But also just finding the time to hang out with them outside of volleyball to make sure that we’re still connected, not just volleyball-wise. And then school. There’s definitely a lot of late nights doing schoolwork, but gotta get those grades up.
Q: What was the best moment of your season this year?
Rubel: I honestly don’t know. There were a lot of good moments. There were just a lot of funny moments that I’ll just remember for forever.
Q: Do you remember a moment in a game that was the best for you personally?
Rubel: Playing Howell here the first time. It was the fifth set. It was literally just a crazy game. It was back and forth and I stopped Danielle Moore. I felt the atmosphere of the gym just blow up, and it was just a really good feeling.
Q: If you met someone who had never heard of volleyball, how would you describe it to them?
Rubel: An individual sport where people come together to play as a team. Each person has their own role, and one person can’t do their role if somebody else isn’t doing theirs.
Q: So how do you help your team do their role?
Rubel: I try and make sure that everyone stays in their role, and not try [to] take too much power. Setting is an easy example. Making sure our setter feels safe and that she can go for every ball [knowing] we’re not gonna try and step in and take the ball from her.
Q: What makes you a great player?
Rubel: Oh, I don’t know. I would say my selflessness. I always try and put my team before me because, to me, the two things that you can control are your attitude and effort. And I always try and make sure that I have a good attitude towards my teammates, because I feel like once you give off positivity, obviously positivity and then effort. I don’t care if you have a bad game or not. I was trying to [make it] very apparent to everybody that I just want effort out of everybody, me included, and I felt like you had to lead by an example. I can’t just say it and not do it, right?
Q: How has volleyball changed who you are? Changed your life?
Rubel: It’s changed my life. Definitely had to make me grow up a lot faster, just…having to deal with hard coaches and everything. But it’s also really taught me how to take a moment and just kind of recenter myself and stay focused on a task at hand.
