With an overall record of 26-8 and a region record of 6-1, the Knights volleyball team is striving to carry on its success through the playoffs.
Senior co-captain Vivienne Cannon said the team’s expectations before the season didn’t impact the Knights because the team made adjustments.
“Expectations were high coming into the season, but the expectations have been met and exceeded,” Cannon said. “Everyone has stepped up, and everyone has filled the role they’ve been asked to play. We have transitioned really seamlessly from last season to this season.”
Head coach Sandi Stein said the team’s losses have been learning experiences to grow from.
“Our losses were our fault; we had too many unforced errors,” Stein said. “We’ve cleaned that up against some great competition like Lovett and Westminster, which were some great wins for us.”
Junior Brennan Fritts said the team has been able to connect throughout the length of the season, helping the team improve its ability to play together.
“Everyone is growing into their role,” Fritts said. “With the new people on varsity, it took them a couple games to get to know everyone and their role on the team. With time, everyone has adapted and is now playing with confidence.”
Stein said, to prepare for playoffs, she has scheduled games against out of region opponents to increase competition.
“I have a stronger schedule that counteracts the region play,” Stein said. “We played in a big Lakepoint tournament where we’re usually playing against other top 10 schools. I just scheduled tough tournaments, and then getting more of the private schools at our higher level play [on our schedule] has been our plan.”
Sophomore Nora Goodman said the team has been practicing hard to make up for the lack of region competition.
“To prepare for playoffs, we are practicing almost every day of the week and working through game-like situations,” Goodman said. “We have not been playing top tier teams, so we have to practice extra hard and smart to get ready for those games. We are definitely working hard to ensure that we are all properly prepared for playoffs.”
Cannon said the teams blocking percentage has increased throughout the season, which will be helpful for teams later on.
“I think closing our block has been a really big thing we’ve been focusing on and improving on,” Cannon said. “Earlier in the season, the opponent was getting over our block a lot, and they were able to find the hole that our defense wasn’t really there to cover; so, I think closing our block has been really important, especially, if we want to beat good teams.”
Goodman said the team is still working on increasing the dependability of serves to limit the pressure from opponents’’s offenses.
“We are looking to improve on serve consistency,” Goodman said. “When we miss serves, we expose ourselves to teams with good offenses, which obviously becomes harmful when it comes to us consistently winning.”
The team has had to adjust throughout the season, but Stein said she is impressed with the player’s reliability.. She said anyone could step up at any time.
“We have a solid group of players,” Stein said. “At any one time, anyone can step up for anyone. In the first big tournament we played [at Lakepoint], Brennan wasn’t there, so other people had to step up. It’s been fun to watch their growth and their excitement. We’re just trying to keep that alive while still pushing them to be the best.”
Cannon said the team is looking to advance in the state playoffs and to lose fewer games than last year.
“Our goals are to be region champs and to go farther in state than we ever have, which would be the Elite Eight,” Cannon said. “We also want to keep our losses under 10 because last year, we had 12 losses. I think we have a really good team this year, and even with the private schools on our schedule, if we really put our mind to it, we can keep our losses under 10.”
