Volleyball Finishes With a Victorious Season, Defeating Andover After a Seven Year Drought
It begins with a roar like a lion’s.
The crowd is ecstatic. The red digits of the Love Gymnasium scoreboard blink to 29-28 as head volleyball coach Bruce Shang stares up at the overhead fluorescent lights. Mired deep in a third set tiebreak, the tide has swung back and forth for this historic Big Red team. His cast of players huddle together one last time in a mosaic of red and white as their dark blue opponents, on the brink of elimination, drip sweat down onto the waxen floorboards across the net. Roars from up and down the wooden stands reach Shang’s ears. In the next 10 seconds of Exeter’s final home game, his team will complete the final piece of a near-perfect season. Although they will go on to lose their semifinal against Choate, a team they closed out a tight 5-set match with earlier in the season, the season-closing playoff against their traditional rivals set the tone for the season.
Gliding up to the service line, lower Josie Russ tosses the ball up with her left, and raises her right shoulder, letting gravity work into the final swing of her motion. Her palm instinctively searches for and finds the three-stitch seam of the ball and sends it sailing over the net and the heads of the Andover frontcourt.
“Persistence,” Russ says, has been the key to their season.
Russ, a third-year volleyball player, is already coming off of a 3-1 win at Andover, ending a 7-year E/A drought. The win capped a 12-6 regular season that secured them a place in the NEPSAC conference quarterfinals on their home court, a tournament that the school missed out on last year, and fell in the first round the previous two.
For four-year senior captains Weilin Chan and Kaelina Lombardo, this moment is the final note of their careers.
After three seasons of never making it past the first round of the playoffs and a lower season that ended in a sweep by Andover, Chan and Lombardo are itching to hit back. They both watch and ready their stances, along with the rest of their team, as the ball sail towards the waiting hands of the Andover libero.
And for a season that saw captain-elect and co-MVP, upper Brooke Detwiler, and lower Taylor Jean-Jacques named to the NESPAC All-Star team, the opportunity looks promising. They comprise, along with co-MVP Chan and lower Zaidee Laughlin, an expectant team that has done as they do now all season: dig their heels in and wait to strike.
Chan spoke of the importance of this last season in her Exeter career. “There isn't much more I could have wanted for my last volleyball season at Exeter,” Chan said. “From the start, the team had amazing chemistry. I remember thinking to myself that the team was an extremely talented group of girls.”
Although just four days ago the girls had taken down their Big Blue rivals in a 3-1 thriller, only a month ago they had left Andover in a crushing 0-3 defeat.
“I remember being really nervous after that match to play Andover again the following Wednesday in the playoffs,” Laughlin said. “Part of me thought that there was no way we could do it again.” The results to come during the playoffs were far from certain.
In a fluid whip of the body, the Andover girl smashes the ball, sending Jean-Jacques into a low dive to save it.
Detwiler places the set high up in the air in perfect position for lower Michelle Bosche.
From the corner sideline, Shang watches with his regularly stern face. His disciplined approach to the season along with a new set of talent has combined to make this season promising.
Detwiler commented on Coach Shang’s attitude toward practice and games. “He inspires such a great work ethic,” Detwiler said. “We have a young team, but the aura of positive yet intense competition that enveloped the gym produced incredible results. Our season speaks volumes to Shang’s coaching ability.”
The “young team” that Detwiler speaks of holds incredible promise for the future. Only four teammates, including co-captains Chan and Lombardo, will graduate this year. The majority of Shang’s core group consists of lowers with big talent.
After nearly a decade of struggling to find their place in the league, the girls’ volleyball team made an early resounding statement. With a 5-0 run to start the season, Big Red proved that they could play against anyone and win.
As Bosche takes three steps and jumps high in the air, arching her back like a bow into the air, Shang lets a smile break loose. Both Shang and Bosche, who led the whole team in kills this season, have the same thought in mind:
“The game was over.”
The smash, streaking deep and fast toward the hardwood, is too strong for the Andover setter. The scoreboard blinks the final score of the marathon third set, 30 – 28. As the ball hits the floor, the crowd erupts, roaring out onto the court to surround their team, swathed in maroon and white.
Recalling the atmosphere of that final moment, Laughlin said, “The energy in that gym was unforgettable.”