The girls’ volleyball team wrapped up the season on Tuesday, Oct. 22 overall with 9 wins, 11 losses, and one tie.
“We started the season a bit slow and we were playing as underdogs in most of our games,” said Coach Stephanie Recklau.
Back in September, Coach Recklau said, “My goals for this season were to continue to improve with every game, to have fun, and to make playoffs.”
The girls unfortunately did not make the playoffs this season, but are hopeful for the next season to play hard.
Being a participant in any college sport is not easy. Jacqueline Schaefer, the only Sophomore team member and captain, and Freshman outside hitter, Katrikki Lennon, agreed.
Lennon, an 18-year-old civil engineer major from Levittown, spoke about the overwhelming life of a student athlete.
“It’s definitely not easy being a student athlete. The hardest part about it is probably time management. If you are not in class, you’re at practice or a game. It’s difficult to juggle everything at once,” said Lennon. “I wanted to get more experience. I think getting to know my teammates and having the ability to trust them is just as important as getting stronger as an individual. I definitely wanted to work on my jump floater serve, and on my serving in general.”
Schafer also spoke about the involvement of being a student athlete. “While being a student athlete, I have to really manage my time with school, work, and practice. There’s no free time in my schedule so I have to prioritize and actually get my school work done. For this season, I personally would like to improve my hitting and serving compared to last year,” said Schafer.
“Competing at this level is difficult but also a lot of fun.” Schaefer continued, “In our league we have a lot of really good teams to compete against. We just try to play our best and hope to come out with a win”.
When asked about what factors separate a winning team to a losing team, Schaefer said, “As a team we play our best when we are talking and communicating with each other the entire match. We need to get better at shaking off a bad play, resetting and not letting one bad play turn into more bad plays. Volleyball is a very mental game.”
Schafer added how the team could improve for next season.
“We just need to work together, communicate more, and I believe we will get there. Volleyball is a really fun sport and I love playing with these group of girls,” she said
Not only does Schaefer believe that being able to communicate during matches is vital for their team’s success, Lennon believed so as well.
“I’m sure everyone would agree with me, but we need to work on speaking up on the court. We all play better the louder we are, but communication is something that we all need to work on,” Lennon explained.