The Jonathan Alder high school volleyball team is diving into the season with a 8-4 record. There have been some bumps in the road so far, but the players are willing to put in the work to achieve success. 

 According to senior captain Sarah Schimmoeller, the girls have been working hard every week, having practice every day that they don’t have a game. Schimmoeller says that one thing she loves about her team is “that we all come together from different social aspects and play together as a team. We all come with the same purpose to win and we work well together.” 

Team chemistry is important, and that’s one thing that’s going well for the team this season. “Everyone is friends on the team,” says junior captain Lily Trbovich. According to Trbovich, they try to go and have bonding days, doing activities like going to Bridge Park in Dublin, and kayaking. The girls also have before game traditions, such as singing “Flashlight” from the movie Pitch Perfect in the darkness of the empty aux gym in order to hype themselves up.

Although their 8-4 record shows some losses, Schimmoeller explains that the season is going well. “…two of the games that we lost were against really good teams; we played with our hearts in those games and they just happened to be better and I mean we fought for it.’ 

One of the biggest blows for the season so far was the loss against London on September 12th. “We beat them in the first set, and we just came out on fire and then we just started making errors,” says Schimmoeller. “…The pressure of playing London got to us…We didn’t play like ourselves at all…there was no energy on the court and we were making mistake after mistake,” adds Trbovich. 

Alder has the opportunity to play London again at home on Thursday October 5. “Historically for the past like three years, each team has beat each one home…so I think they should be scared coming to us,” says Schimmoeller.

Trbovich stated that they needed to be more consistent with how they play. “We’ll have a phenomenal set, and do good at every touch, and then we’ll have a set where we can’t serve, receive, and can’t hit.’ Schimmoeller believes that the team needs to take an opportunity whenever it is available, ‘…if we have an opportunity to beat a good team, coming with the mindset to win and not playing down to a team’s level.’