After losing their game to Byron Nelson and being eliminated from the playoffs, the varsity volleyball team reflects on the things they still need to improve upon as well as what they did right this season.
“I feel like the team did a very nice job this year coming in, since they were very new,” head coach Terri Minnis said. “So, for the team to come in and accomplish the things that they did this season was a huge success.”
After winning 21 out of 33 games, the varsity volleyball team was able to judge where they did their best work. For example, this season, the team won both of their games against McKinney Boyd, with scores of 3-2 and 3-1.
“I think that for our kids to be able to come in and beat Boyd twice was an emotional win this year for the team,” Minnis said. “That was a huge turning point for the team this season.”
Some players, such as senior Ryann Tooker, have had to learn to be patient this year. With much of the varsity team consisting of seniors, not everyone gets an equal amount of time on the court.
“You will be on the bench sometimes, and with the amount of teammates we have it can be kind of hard to always stay positive about the situation,” Tooker said. “However, when we sit on the bench, we make sure that we cheer the loudest and are thankful that we are on the team.”
While not getting enough court time can be a personal struggle for players, for the majority of this year’s team, including junior Callie Parlin, their pre-game mentality was a more common issue.
“We tend to be up and down a lot and I think we just need to get stronger mentally in order to push through,” Parlin said. “We need to have the same mentality going into a hard game as an easier game.”
Although they had their struggles, this year’s team did much better than in previous years. They ranked second in the district at the end of this season and made it into the playoffs for the first time in several years. Even though they were not able to progress past the first round of the playoffs, the team is proud of how far they did go.
“This team has actually surprised me a lot, we have done way better than expected this season,” Parlin said. “We got second and that was definitely better than we have done in previous years.”
The juniors on the team are now looking forward to next year and are starting to figure out ways to improve. Besides controlling their nerves and staying positive, the team must prepare for next year by raising their self-confidences.
“Being aggressive and playing without fear will be a major focus,” Minnis said. “We just have to go out and take big swings and see what happens.”
Overall, the players on the team are content to know that they made it this far and have had one of the best seasons in the past few years.
“Everyone thinks that they could have done so much more after the fact,” Tooker said. “I really think that everyone, especially the seniors, laid it all out on the court and left their legacy as best as they could.”