The girls volleyball team racked up two wins on Thursday, September 5 at their home game against Red Lion and on Tuesday, September 3 at their away game against South Western.
Varsity won the first three games in a best of five match with scores of 25-21, 25-17, and 25-22. Key players according to GametimePA included senior Abbey Barnhart with 5 kills, 2 aces and 9 digs, senior Bethany Miller with 14 digs, 1 assist and 1 ace, junior Abigail Bentz with 8 kills, 11 assists, 2 aces and 8 digs, sophomore Lauren Castriota with 11 digs, and sophomore Kelly Franz with 9 assists, 2 aces and 1 dig.
Senior outside hitter Barnhart expresses concern for the teams biggest challenge this year.
“The game went really good, and I think we all worked together really good,” said Barnhart. “I think this season will be a good one, and our only challenge will be overcoming the mental aspect of the game. We need to learn to get up after we are pushed down and to get past our mistakes and learn from [them].”
The Warriors also won their away game Tuesday, September 3 against South Western. Three games were played; Susquehannock won all three with scores of 25-22, 25-20, and 25-22. According to GametimePA, the three key players with the highest stats are, Bentz with 12 kills, 12 assists, 1 ace, 10 digs and 1 block, senior Halle Murdock with 4 kills and 1 dig, Miller with 1 kill, 2 assists, 2 aces and 19 digs.
Middle hitter Murdock knows that Southwestern put up a good fight even though the warriors came out with the win.
“We played great, but we could have done better and played up to our full potential,” said Murdock. “ I think in the end we won because they couldn’t pull it off where we started off strong and ended strong. I think we will go pretty far this season because we have all of the puzzle pieces to make the big picture.”
Setting the foundation for a good season with an undefeated record, this year is still going to be a hard year for the team. With an advancement in the league last year from Class AA to Class AAA, in turn bumping the team up to Division I in YAIAA, the team needs to step up their game in order to continue their successes from previous years.
Coach Rob Marrison feels moving up to Division 1 will affect the varsity team.
“There are a lot of good teams in both Division 1 and Division 2,” said Marrison. “But in Division 2 it’s almost like you can take a day off once in a while where in Division 1 you have no easy games. I think we can compete with teams in Division 1, and I think it is a good thing we are in Division 1 because it makes the team work harder.”
Marrison knows the team will encounter a couple of challenges throughout the season.
“Our biggest challenge is when we play tall teams since we are below average when it comes to height,” said Marrison. “But what we don’t have in height, we make up for in our defense. We have a really good defense, and most other teams don’t really seem to like that. I think the lack in height factor will really come into play when we go to the playoffs, but I know we can overcome it.”
As the girls continue on with their season, they are working to make it to playoffs, districts, and hopefully to the title of division champions.
