10/3/24 Highlight: Girls’ Varsity Volleyball
By ERIN HAN, JUNE KOH, FIONA LIU and SOPHIE LOW
On Saturday, Sept. 28, the girls’ varsity volleyball team extended their winning streak with another 3-0 sweep.
This win secured the fourth consecutive sweep of the season. Though the girls faced pressure from Choate’s team now and then, they fought back and came out on top with a clear-cut margin.
Players acknowledged some of the game’s challenges, noting that, just like any other game, the match had its rocky moments. “We were down by about 5 or 6 at the beginning of the third set, we had some passing miscommunications,” recalled captain Clare McCann. “But the great thing about our team is that we’re able to quickly talk about them between points and we were able to come back and win the set.” The team was able to show determination and grit to secure the win.
The game thereupon became a brilliant display of the team’s technical ability. Marked by long rallies and strong hits, the players brought an aggressive playing style to the court. “Overall, everyone played consistently and aggressively, so there were long rallies throughout the game,” said senior and captain Ellie Ocampo. “I think the game as a whole was a highlight.”
McCann attributed much of the game’s success to the team’s proactive gameplay. “The game was very competitive and scrappy,” she said. “There were many scrappy digs and out-of-system plays, as well as some crazy plays at the net that showed a lot of effort.”
“Our outside hitters Clare and Ellie, were absolutely killing the ball,” recalled prep Kruthika Annapareddy.
McCann lauded co-captain and setter Liv Lang, who helped set up these successful kills. “Liv Lang had extremely consistent setting from wherever she is on the court, which helped the two outside hitters find open spots on the court to smash the ball down.”
Naomi Salami, a new member of the team, confirmed, “I think that the captains led us well, as always. They’re very good at keeping everyone out of their heads, and moving on after each point, even if we lose it.”
Salami continued, “We had some amazing blocks during the game from the middles, as well as amazing kills all around from the offense.”
Annapareddy remarked, “The biggest hurdle for us so far is, I think, consistency. Sometimes the games start off slow, and we lose energy, but we are also good at noticing when the energy is down and bringing it back up.”
Captain Liv Lang agreed, saying, “I think that for me, that’s a goal. Every time I’m on the court, my goal is to pick up my teammates and to bring that energy.” Lang also shared some insight into the team’s goals, explaining that “Our team motto is to get better. Every day it’s like, how can I make myself 1% better? How can I make my teammates 1% better? So those are the two overarching goals.”
Salami highlighted the team’s impressive streak thus far, noting, “So far out of all of our games, we haven’t even dropped a set yet, which I’m really happy about.”
However, the team’s overall performance has still been stellar. Ocampo reflected, “We haven’t had many hurdles in the season, besides a few injuries. I think our biggest challenge will be the upcoming Loomis game. We hope to win the NEPSAC championship, but for now, we are just taking it game by game.”
Every team has its own way of hyping each other up before a game. Lang shared Big Red’s: “One of our traditions actually is before every game we get in a little huddle and we go around and we all give the individual goal that we wanna work on. So for example, mine today was like just being loud.”
Lang then emphasized, “It changes everyday. Sometimes we don’t like to come out of the gate as strong as [it] ends.”
McCann added that “we all clicked very quickly during preseason” and described the team as “very tight.”
Despite many players being new to the team, Lang said, “We’re all there to win, so the newness of it makes it exciting—and, of course, the other goal is always to get better.”
