Working together to celebrate wins and overcome losses, the girls volleyball team strives to achieve personal and team goals, while remaining connected as a team throughout the season.
“We’ve had our ups and downs definitely, but we’ve beat a lot of teams that we usually don’t sometimes and it’s just been a really good season so far,” senior captain Alli Sauerwald said.
According to the players, the season has had mixed results with some exciting wins against teams they don’t usually beat, as well as some disappointing losses.
“The season started out really strong. We had a big win against North Penn, we’ve beat CB South [and] recently we beat CB West, which was the top school,” senior captain Alexa Mazzeo said, “but we also lost to North Penn again and we lost to CB South so it’s really been going up and down.”
Inside their conference, the team has experienced highs and lows. “All the teams in our conference are around the same level so it really comes down to who wants to play that day,” Mazzeo said.
Despite these hardships, the team has only become closer and more united.
“So far this season is pretty good. We have encountered some difficulties but we’re doing a really good job of coming together and being stronger together and uniting and overcoming those challenges,” coach Cori Watson said.
The girls work to perform with a lot of energy on the court. “We’ve been doing really well with our group dynamics,” junior Margaret Donnelly said.
According to Donnelly, the team makes an effort to maintain upbeat, positive energy. “We’ve been really working on keeping our energy up and working as a team [along with] bringing each other up instead of bringing each other down, [which] I think is really working for us.”
The players’ similar mindset and goals on the court, as well as maintaining strong friendships off the court have helped them be successful overall.
“We have a really good relationship on and off the court,” Sauerwald said. “On the court we’re really encouraging with each other and we all stay really positive and bring each other up and try to be really good teammates.”
The team’s dynamic helps them to be closer to achieving their goals not only as a team but personally as individual players.
“I would say that the goal for this season is to work hard and get better,” Watson said. “We just want to do really good things on our side of the net and do what we can to own our own wins.”
For many of the girls, they are working towards improving their skills as well as possibly making the playoffs.
“The goal for the team is to make it to [the] playoffs,” Mazzeo said.
Sauerwald agrees. “[A goal] for the team I would say [is to] try to make it to playoffs,” Sauerwald said.