If you happen to be walking down the main hallway in the afternoon, you may hear the sound of hard-hit volleyballs bouncing off the gym court. Inside the gym is a team of 13 girls encouraging and supporting one another as they are perfecting their skills. The volleyball season has officially begun and the team is off to an outstanding start with an 19-3 record. 

This year, the team expects to build off of the progress from last season and make a playoff appearance. The team hopes that their dedication each day in practice, fearless game performances, and new varsity players will help them become stronger players and reach their high aspirations this year. 

“The previous matches have gone really well,” senior Annie Cooke said. “We are connecting pretty seamlessly and have formed that trust on the court quickly in order to have success early in the season.” 

The team has begun playing their district matches and have been off to a strong start. Their current district record is 5-1. They have competed against Conroe, Klein Collins, The Woodlands, Klein Forest, and Oak Ridge. Throughout each of these matches, the team showed consistency and trust with each other on the court, which helped lead them to each of their victories. The team fell to The Woodlands in a tight match, but they look forward to playing them again on October 3rd. 

“I think this year’s team has a lot more depth and options than last year’s,” Coach Gibson said. “I feel like we are stronger both offensively and defensively this year because we do have a lot of options to choose from.”

In last Monday’s game against Klein Forest, senior Noelle Palmer hit 1,000 kills for her varsity career. She currently holds the record for the number of kills this season with 268. Along with Noelle Palmer, Annie Cooke (University of Houston commit) holds the record for number of assists this season with 579, and Caley Caffey holds the record for digs with 332. Leading the team this season are team captains- Caley Caffey, Annie Cooke, Noelle Palmer, and Abbey Kremer. 

 “We are always grinding,” Coach Gibson said. “The girls are always working. We have worked really hard to develop a strong, positive, hardworking, and teamwork culture and I think that sets us apart from other schools in the district.” 

During the season, all varsity players practice during 6th period and attend after school practice. Each day they begin their practices with individual skills. Then they progress to work on team plays or any specific skills needed for the upcoming matches. To prepare for strong upcoming opponents, the team will watch film and look at the stats to see which individual players are producing. They will then tailor their lineup to match up to their opponents. 

“This year we have outstanding student support and we have had great student-athlete support at our last couple of home matches,”  Coach Gibson said. “We celebrate a win that night, we talk about it, and it’s exciting, but the next day we are looking forward to who our next opponent is and are focusing on the task at hand.”

Each day before the team takes the court, they gather together to have a team talk and prayer. The team could be playing up to 3 hours on the court together. This means that each girl must rely on their teammates for support and work extremely hard to earn each point even after long sets. When the team wins the match, they celebrate together but realize they must remain focused to qualify for the playoffs. 

“I am looking forward to playoffs in the future and traveling with the team,” senior Sophia Gagliardi said. 

In 2017, the volleyball team qualified for the regional tournament for the 1st time in school history. They ended up becoming regional finalists. This season the team is looking to return to regionals and earn even more titles.  

“Our goal is to go out every single night, be competitive, fight for the wins, and we will hopefully make it to playoffs, and make a good playoff run,” Coach Gibson said.