GHS Volleyballs First Game

By: Emerson Graber

   On August 23, 2021 Greenwood High School had their very first game of the 2021 season. Addi McEwing, Ansley Buchanon, Izzy Hancock, and Victoria Alfaya, are four volleyball players from GHS who got to play in this game. 

   Victoria, one of the freshman team setters, has a fairly good feeling that the freshman team will take home a win for the GHS volleyball program. She believes this will be a tough game and the team will have to work very hard to beat Bowling Green High School. “I guess the team has just improved a lot,” said Victoria.

    A big part of playing sports is mentality. Baseball catcher Yogi Berra states, ¨90% of sports start out mentally.¨ Izzy Hancock, a DS–a player who passes defensively- on the freshman team, explained she has a fear of messing up the play or getting yelled at. “BG is a tough team,”  Izzy told me with fear. We talked more and she seemed to start feeling a little less nervous. She wants to get there and get all her nerves out before the game begins. The best of luck to all four girls on Tuesday!

   Continuing to Tuesday night, points were earned and lost, a ton of hard work put into the games. First game of the night was the freshman game. They dug themselves into a huge hole, having BG in the lead 7-0. Maggie Poyner then steps up to serve. So many amazing serves put them back into the game. They then start to take the lead! The entire freshman team put so much effort into this game. With a kill ( when the player goes up to hit and wins the point) from Victoria, they won the first set. Playing great in the second set, THE FRESHMAN TEAM BEATS BG! BG had been undefeated for two whole years and Greenwood Volleyball was able to beat them. “I just can’t believe we finally beat them,” says Victoria.

   JV also worked hard during their game. Even though they did not beat BGs JV team they still played well. The game went to three sets.  Ansley Buchanon, a middle blocker on jv,  had five kills

and 4 blocks, she personally thinks she did okay. She stated “We played ok but the team had many miscommunication problems.” Communication is a huge part of volleyball that is most definitely needed to win games.

  “We didn’t play our best” are words of disappointment after varsity lost to BG. They didn’t seem to have the passion to win this game. Addi McEwing, also a middle blocker but on varsity says,“I didn’t have the fire when playing last night.” Even though the team did not win, Addi had 3 blocks and 3 kills. Great stats for her personally.

   When I watched the games I realized that one thing freshman had more of than jv/varsity was passion. Ansley and Addi both expressed to me how their teams did not have enough passion and fire to win. Victoria on the other hand felt her team was very fired up and wanted to win. This goes back to what Berra said, that mentality  is a huge part of sports. 

   A great win and some disappointing losses for the Greenwood Volleyball teams. You all will have chances to beat them again in the future.