Addisyn Madeen
This Tuesday, September 13, our high school girl’s volleyball teams had their first games of the season. The Cougars’ played against the Simbas’ (International School of Sacred Heart). They showed up promptly around 4:45 with a large number of girls walking down our school’s pavilion. They all had matching silver and purple ribbons in their hair and excited chatter as we were finally allowed large games again. They walked into the gym with the bleachers packed with Saint Maur students and staff ready to cheer for their sacred players. However, they came prepared with their own chants about wiping the floor with their opponents, who happened to be us, and eager supporters that were loud enough to match our own. Saint Maur, on the other hand, has our own very special chant “Pump it up!” that has a special way of getting all of the players, coaches, and maybe even spectators into a frenzy. It truly pumps us all up!
The JV game began with a strong start, winning their first set with ten points. Throughout the game, they definitely scared the other team that many time-outs had to be called to break the serve. The team spirit was through the roof that they rarely ever missed a team huddle and that’s not to mean they got cocky. They just became confident. There were many impressive spikes that we don’t see often on a Saint Maur JV team but this year, we definitely have a special one. Sadly, they lost the second set but this doesn’t mean this dampened their spirits. They kept going and trying to lead to their impressive win in their third set. (Quite quickly too!) JV had a special save from a very special player who stopped a ball from hitting the floor at the very last second with her foot, could she also possibly be a soccer player? Maybe Coach Hnatshyn had gotten to her before Coach Bolaños. Speaking of Coach Bolaños, it was noticed that he would walk along with the ball. It went forward, so did he, it went backward, so did he. He made sure to keep his players in positions while shouting encouragement and cheers, he might’ve ensured a couple of cheers came their way (wink wink). This definitely helped boost the JV’s confidence though and definitely helped them score this win. Whilst, JV doesn’t have “official” positions, we can definitely see that they are all becoming well-rounded in everything as no player shied away from making sure that no ball hit the floor. Congratulations to the Junior Varsity team for their impressive win and we cannot wait for the next game!
Soon after, the Varsity game began. With Varsity in the lead for the first half of the set, the Simbas soon surpassed us with more than five points to win the first set. ISSH’s specialty was their consistent high sets and strong serves but they struggled with receiving and blocks. We, on the other hand, specialize in blocks and receiving, with around the same level of spikes but both teams lacked multiple players who could do everything and anything, nearly impossible to find players like that. Both teams, however, seemed to be focused on raising spirits and keeping the energy high and so our team captains especially made sure to boost everyone’s spirits and everyone on the bench worked on cheering everyone on. This proved effective soon enough as Varisty won the second set. This meant that we had two more sets to earn the chance to win. Sadly, we lost three sets to one. Yet, there were impressive hits from the outside players, impressive blocks from our main middle, amazing serves from all the players, and our hardworking libero and setter made a strong team. Special highlights were definitely impressive saves from our two outsides who have never been afraid to dive. Our main middle blocker whose height and jumps just cannot be matched definitely blocked many-a-hit, and most spectacularly was our small setter hitting some of the strongest serves that shocked everyone. She has also never been afraid to go for the ball and managed to get nearly every second hit, no matter where it was! Even so, every player played spectacularly and this might finally be the year we get a few wins?!
Let’s go Cougars! Y’all got this!
Addisyn Madeen