Volleyball sets hopes high for next season

Madeleine Misterek, Sports Editor

The girls volleyball team ended the season with a record of 7 wins, 9 losses, but the improvement they showed, perseverance they had and memories they made go undefeated.

Head coach Ann Lovrovich has been leading the team for nine seasons now. She says the strength this year was the team’s unity and ability to adapt to the teams they faced.

“This team played hard every game. We took more great teams to five games than we ever have,” Lovrovich said. “There was never a match where we were not going to fight. All games were close.”

The girls were represented well in the league, winning the Sportsmanship award and having senior Emily Stavig elected to first team and senior Kelly Anderson and junior Georgie Harrison to second team. Juniors Gretchen Golden and Taylor Burdyshaw received honorable mentions.

Lovrovich also described the team as versatile because so many girls could play so many different positions.

Junior Michala Zilkey, who plays outside and right side hitter, believes the team’s defensive strategy was one of their best points.

“I think the team improved on defensive work a lot,” Zilkey said. “At the beginning we didn’t have that many good passers but towards the end we started a couple people who really started passing better.”

Relationships, along with skills, strengthened during the season.

“I think we were more close knit than the year before,” Zilkey said.

She describes the team as family and attributes their chemistry to team bonding through things like singing on bus rides; as well as certain individuals like Anderson and senior McKenzie Looney who “really drew us all together.”

With so many memories and strong games, narrowing down the best part of the season proves a difficult task.

“We get cool sweatshirts,” Zilkey said. “Just kidding. It’s just really fun, everyone’s really nice to be around and the coaches are nice and they’re always driving us to be better people and volleyball players. We’d have like random acts of kindness where sometimes coaches just ask us about our random acts of kindness and if we happened to do one, then we would get candy.”

At the end of the season, some players say farewell to seahawk volleyball, like Anderson. But this team captain has no intention of stepping off the court for good.

“I’m playing volleyball at Corbin University,” Anderson said. “I’m hoping to play outside and DS.”

Returning players, however, look forward to next year.

“I think as a team we really want to make it to state next year,” Zilkey said. “A lot of us are going to be returning to varsity and we’re gonna have a lot of seniors next year so hopefully that’ll make us good.”