New season, new players. and new opportunities. Each year is a new beginning and a time for new chances. This year the varsity volleyball team started the season off strong, despite all the sets backs and challenges along the way.
The varsity coach; Bernie Keop, started participating in volleyball after his four daughters became interested in sports. “What inspired me the most to become a coach was seeing what coaching was out there.” During each game and practice, Bernie’s goal is to inspire each and every player to do her best, to never give up on her goals, whether it’s volleyball or life in general. Bernie was incredibly proud of the team for having a winning record, finishing at 15 wins and 10 losses. The team earned 5th place in the seeding for sections, which is the highest placement the varsity volleyball team has had in the seven years of his coaching. Bernie has always believed in the team.
The biggest challenge the team faced this year was losing the the team’s 3rd year starter; Rachel Rivera, due to the fact that she had broken her ankle during summer training sessions.
“It proved to be a huge challenge that we had to cope with the entire season,” said Bernie.
“Losing Rachel was very difficult because she is an amazing leader on the court,” said Bridget Murphy.
Kate Allerheiligen ’21 is a great leader on the court and took the responsibility of playing libero. Kate is a freshman who has been playing volleyball for five years and was the previous libero for the JV team as an 8th grader. She had a positive impact on the team and will hopefully continue to play next year.
The team had a solid start at conference, but were unfortunately unable to maintain their winning streak. They suffered the loss of a great player, which forced a complete change in the back row strategy. One of the challenges was having such young back row players. They overcame this when the girls stepped it up and realized that they played a big role on the team. Having such a young back row can be an advantage in many ways, one being the fact that they have so many years to improve and advance in their skills.
“They got better and better everyday and suddenly it was hard to believe our back row was made up of such young girls,” said Bridget Murphy.
What’s next? Will the girls continue playing after high school? Kate Murphy 18′ has considered playing at college level, but decided to continue her volleyball career in club or intramural in college. Bridget Murphy 18′ in similar to Kate, says that she would love to play intramural volleyball in college, but nothing more. Kate Allerheiligen 21′ has her sights set on playing in college, the only thing left to decide is for which college she will play .
