The volleyball team rode the energy of a pink-out crowd to a smooth win over Ottawa, continuing a hot start to the year.
The 25-16, 25-21, 25-18 win moved the Cardinals to 16-4 on the season. Head coach Brooke Hopper said the strong start is thanks to a strong team bond.
“These girls, they love to hang out together,” Hopper said. “They love to be together. You know, they’ll finish a game or a tournament, and then they’ll all go hang out together. And you can just tell they don’t want to leave the gym.”
Senior Malia Dietz said the team bonding has shown up in their performance on the court. A few players stepping up into leadership roles have also helped propel the Cardinals.
“Our energy is great,” Dietz said. “And we have great new key leaders that haven’t really had much varsity time that are just stepping up and doing a great job.”
The first set Tuesday night started even, but the Cardinals quickly took control. After a slow start to the second, the team bounced back and rode the momentum through the end of the match.
Senior Miranda Kuntz said resetting during timeouts and communicating better helped the Cardinals’ comeback.
“We didn’t have a lot of communication on the court, and everything was really slow,” she said. “So, just building that energy back up and then working to move the ball around, to move away from the blocks.”
The energy brought to the gym by pink-out night also helped the Cardinals keep their composure when they struggled and bounce back quickly.
Kuntz said the team is still working to be its best by the end of the season.
“We still haven’t hit our peak yet in the season,” Kuntz said. “We’re really looking forward to hitting that towards the end of the season, going into sub-state and hopefully state, just working to get better each and every day.”
The Cardinals will head on the road for the next few weeks. Hopper said the team doesn’t want to look too far ahead but is using every moment to prepare for the postseason.
“We want to make sure that we’re doing everything that we can to challenge ourselves in practice,” Hopper said. “No matter who’s on the other side of that court, we want to make sure that we’re able to challenge ourselves and really put ourselves in the position to be ready for the postseason.”
Reach reporter Cuyler Dunn at [email protected]
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