Volleyball Struggles Against St. Paul's
While a crazy Nor’easter storm drenched the campus outside, the Exeter girls’ varsity volleyball team traveled to St. Paul’s School in hopes of a victory. Led by senior and co-captains Jenny Yang and Sophie Faliero, the team nevertheless suffered a 3-0 set loss. During the first set, the team came up short with a final score of 22-25; at the end of the second set, the girls ended with 10-25 and the score of the final set was 16-25.
The team had trouble maintaining consistency throughout Saturday’s sets and plans to improve on playing high quality sets until matches are complete. Yang said, “For our next four games, we’re really working on keeping the energy up for the entire game.”
Senior Ela Ferhangil agreed, adding that she holds a positive outlook for the upcoming games. “Once we are able to get our competitive energy back, we will be able to dominate in the last part of our season,” she said.
The energy Ferhangil mentioned has been fairly erratic throughout the majority of the season, putting Big Red behind. However, the girls have been practicing diligently to turn it around. “We have been working on [energy] a lot by scrimmaging under pressure while continuing to celebrate each other and communicate,” upper Mia Glinn said.
Despite this fallout, the team shares a good environment and encourages support and love amongst one another. “We’re a really close team this year. [We are] working on positive communication and supporting each other on and off the court, which makes us that much stronger when we go to play tough teams,” Senior Anna Shattuck said. By building team camaraderie and spirit, the volleyball team will surely find success on the court in their upcoming matches.
A few of Big Red’s players were applauded for their spectacular efforts, which kept Exeter in the game. “Sophie Faliero was the team’s star player against St. Paul’s,” Glinn praised. “She performs every game and earns a lot of points for our team.”
The captain has been noted by her teammates to bring her positive attitude and encouraging spirits to lift up the team in upsetting times. Yang also applauded fellow Seniors Lizzy MacBride and Anna Shattuck for a job well done against St. Paul’s. “Their great and accurate passes really helped us run plays during our sets and win points for Exeter,” Yang said.
With just over a week before the big E/a game, Exeter is improving its skills as best it can in practice. Glinn shared the team’s goal for the upcoming weeks of training. “We’re working on having a stronger offense, harder hits, and smarter spots, improving our defense, and not letting balls hit the ground,” she said.
“We definitely have our work cut out for us,” says Ferhangil. “But, if we continue to work hard as a unit and better our game, we’ll come out on top.” As of now, the team is still a contender for the NEPSAC playoffs and championship games.
Come out to the gym on Saturday the 3rd at 3:30PM to see the team succeed to Northfield Mount Hermon. “I’m really proud of our team. We’ve come so far already since the start of the preseason,” says Yang. “If we are able to keep our energy and spirits high, we will have no problem taking on Andover.”