As students ease into the new academic year, the athletic season is in full swing, and high school sports teams are as busy as ever. For the first time in years, the Wildcat Varsity volleyball team traveled to Austin, Texas to compete in the ‘Volleypalooza’ tournaments this past weekend.
Various teams across the state of Texas attended Volleypalooza, with a total of 68 high school volleyball teams competing, and 18 from the DFW area. The tournament lasted over the course of 3 days. Plano Senior played multiple matches from the 24th through the 26th, returning home with a winning streak of 5-3.
“The Volleypalooza tournament was very fun and competitive at the same time,” Senior Molly Bush said. “We faced some tough competition but performed very well!”
In the past, Plano Varsity has only ever played a maximum of two tournaments by this time in the season, so, to have gone on an out-of-town trip to compete in their third tournament of the year was a step out of their comfort zone. The team has never competed in this particular tournament as a program prior to this weekend. The Wildcats found Volleypalooza as a challenge, as they would be going on to compete with some of the toughest 5A and 6A schools in Texas.
“I think it was just a really good starting point for our season,” Co-Captain Avery Baughman said. “And you know, going into regular season and district games, I think we’re feeling pretty good about it; feeling pretty optimistic about what we can do.”
On the first day of the tournament, the Wildcats had won 2-1, which would normally send them onto the gold bracket round, however, because they had earned themselves a three-way-tie with Cinco Ranch and Liberty Hill, they had only gained two wins for the day and landed a spot in Group 2: Pool 5. In the second round, Baughman and Co-Captain Madi Baker pulled their team through and Plano Senior won every match they had played that day, resulting in moving up into the Flight 2A Bracket for the third round. When the time had come for the last day of Volleypalooza, the Plano Wildcats were ready to win. Plano Senior ultimately lost their last two games for the tournament against Barbers Hill and Cedar Park. Plano Senior Varsity ended in 43rd place.
“We did many team activities and bonded as a varsity team that would help us grow closer together,” Baker said.
Both captains, Baker and Baughman, have 3 years of prior knowledge and experience on varsity together, and they used this to their advantage to guide their team in this tournament and bond with each of the girls. Whenever they could, the captains would reiterate, “Do whatever you can to help the team.” This was their first official time to build a concrete rotation routine, and this helped them win some of their matches this weekend.
