Losing in sports can be a rough go– especially in an individual sport. For girls’ volleyball, which maintains a record of 6-16 (with one tie), bouncing back after a tough loss is easier with teammates to lift each other up.
“I know we haven’t won as much as we’ve wanted to, but I feel like we always play as a team and help each other out when we’re struggling,” says junior Kenzy Held.
Games are often back-to-back, which can come as a frustration for some after a hard loss; however, the team’s budding closeness helps keep them motivated to push forward.
“I think working together and wanting to win is our biggest thing, ‘cause when no one plays like they want to win, we don’t play good…we don’t play as a team,” says Held.
Having strong leadership proves beneficial in building up this morale, as senior Grace Holtz and junior Ava Schuette have a special knack for building team spirit as captains.
“They’re really aggressive [players] and show spirit… and [they bring] our team up,” says freshman Jocelyn Gibbs.
Being Gibbs’ first year on the team, she finds herself looking up to the upperclassmen players and forming close bonds with them. By collaborating and building each other up, the girls were able to mark a major success for the season:
“We beat Howell this year for the first time in a long time. We also beat North once,” says Held.
Looking to the future, the girls are reflecting on what they can do to improve for their upcoming tournament and districts.
“…We just need to brush off our mistakes and not worry about what’s happening in the past, ‘cause we dwell too much on what we’ve done that wasn’t good, and we need to focus on the things that we know we can do better,” says Held.
Gibbs believes the key to success also lies in the mechanics of play.
“…There’s always things to work on, like on our offense, I think we could play smarter or clean up our passing,” says Gibbs.
As the close of the girls’ volleyball season nears, they will play Howell at their senior night, Lafayette and St. Pius X at their home Saturday tournament, and begin their fight in districts against Ladue.
