On October 17, the girls’ varsity volleyball team lost its match to Grayslake central, losing both matches and not pushing for a third tie-breaker. This makes their record 18-6, which is a very strong record for the girls, especially when compared to recent years.

With many of the girls this year hoping to finish out the season with the same strength and vigor they’ve carried all season, very many of the players have used this winning season as a way to show just how good their team is, and just how far they can take this team.

“A large part of the loss last night was that we had girls playing positions they never had before,” sophomore Veronica Henkel said. “We just had to adjust to the new positions and hoped to do as well as we could.”

With this change came a large shift in responsibility for many of the girls, which resulted in many of the older players getting a good chance to exemplify what it means to be a leader on the team. With this, younger girls are also given the chance to learn from the members of the team that have the most experience.

“In the past couple of games, some of the older players have had to step up and lead the younger players on the team,” senior Elliana Nordhaus said. “It feels good to be doing my part and helping some of the younger players learn the ropes and adjust to different positioning.”

Although the game eventually resulted in a loss for the team, many of the players were able to realize there are still many redeeming qualities to come from this game, especially when they look at who is able to step up and contribute everything they have for the team.

“We definitely didn’t play our best, but we still want to learn from the game,” sophomore Hannah Benes said. “A lot of us still played pretty well, especially Hailey Russo. She always made the plays that she needed to and took responsibility for any mistakes that she made. I think that’s the reason our back row has such good chemistry.”

No matter how you look at this past game, the girls have found a way to keep their heads and spirits high and continue to look on to face the rest of the competition for the rest of the season, which appears to shortly be drawing to a close. With that, the team hopes to finish their season with a win this Wednesday against Wauconda and carry their momentum on to a good run in the postseason, something they’ve been hoping to do before the season even started.