Many students, parents and teachers have spent the past two months on the edge of their seats watching the girls varsity volleyball season play out.

Although the ambitious team is not ending this season undefeated, their dedication and hard work shine through.

“We just played North and I saw the real us there, I haven’t seen us in a while,” team member Cody Conlan said.

According to team member and outside hitter Molly Astfalk, the team started off the season really well without losing any games at all.

“In the beginning, we were doing well, so everyone was really excited about that and had a lot of confidence,” Astfalk said.

Conlan said that the team overall was really strong until their game at Country Day.

“Half way through the season, we hit a mark where we played country day and it was downhill from there,” Conlan said.

According to Astfalk, they have lost to Stevenson, Lanscruise North and PHN.

“As we struggled in the second half, a lot of people have been getting down on themselves,” Astfalk said.

Team captain Cindy Hogan said they hit a rut towards the middle of the season but are now getting back to their full potential again.

“We won the first five games and two tournaments all in a row so it was a lot of excitement and we beat North twice so we definitely have a good team here,” Hogan said.

According to Conlan, many of the players began to panic when they were not doing as well in the second half of the season.

“It made everyone really tense on the court, which you cant have on a volleyball court,” Conlan said.

Hogan said there was less conflict on the team this year compared to last year, and there hasn’t been as much tension.

“We have a lot of juniors who have not necessarily been on varsity, so it has been sort of a process to help them get to know what they can do,” Hogan said.

According to Astfalk, the team really focused on team bonding and working together because you can’t win individually.

“We have a lot of good hitters, good setters and good back row players, so as long as we just focus on the fundamentals, we become pretty effective.”

Conlan said the emotional setbacks were that they didn’t always trust each other during the season.

“We were all close and friends, which is a good thing because you want your team to be close, but there were a couple people on the team who might of been a little uncomfortable,” Conlan said.

According to Hogan, they had one freshman on the team and it was difficult to fit her in with all juniors and seniors, but she did her best.

“We could have improved on being more incorporative with all of the levels, like JV and freshman included,” Hogan said. “Just because for the last two years we haven’t been as incorporative as a program.”

Astfalk said they have a lot of talent on the team, but there is always room for improvement.

“We just need to keep our confidence up and know that one loss isn’t the end of he season,” Astfalk said.