Volleyball, a very competitive sport for both men and women of all ages to bump, set and spike the ball over the net. Junior Amanda Kretman a very well known volleyball player for stillwater jumps into a world of achievements and pride.

Amanda has been playing volleyball ever since the seventh grade and has not stopped. She stated “ ever since I started in the seventh grade, I knew I wanted to play the sport into college, and maybe hope I would be good enough to earn a scholarship into the college of my choice.”

Every game she has played her passion for volleyball grew more and more. Amanda went on to explain she does not know what she would do without it, it relieves her stress and makes her happier than anything. She has accomplished a lot in her volleyball career including being the caption of the team in her JV season and as of right now she is playing left and right positions in club volleyball which is called Sajo. Sajo is a volleyball organizational team where volleyball players from around washington county can go to the weekend tryouts and show the couches what they have and then the couches pick the best players. Amanda has made the Sajo team the past four years in a row and she is still counting.

Although she is the doing most of the work when on the court, she has many people that support her, and the sport volleyball. She has many loyal fans such as her mom Jennifer, her dad Paul her four sisters, and many friends from her team and not on the team. Junior Megan Conroy, also Amanda’s sister is very proud of her. Megan enjoys going to the volleyball games and giving her support for the team. Megan Explained “ Watching Amanda play is really fun, I use to play volleyball with her in the seventh grade, but from time to time we like to get together and practice outside with our family and friends.”

Amanda went on to explain her favorite game. It was in mid November and they were playing a woodbury team, the two teams were tied and there was only twenty seconds left in the game, the other team had the first serve and they had their best server serving the volleyball. The stillwater couch called a timeout so they could make a game plan. As people know the timeouts are not that long, so the game went back into play and the other team served the ball as hard and fast as they could. With the help of the team the ponies bumped, set and spiked the ball on to the other side of the opposing team. Amanda the captain got the last touch of the volleyball and spiked it as hard as she could which caused the other team to lose. After they had realized they won the team cheered and said a chant. Team player Juliana Santos explained “ I remember how happy the team was especially Amanda, she was really happy, and was jumping everywhere, but before she could celebrate with the team we of course went and talked to the other team and told them how well they also did, she is a true team player and a great captain.”

With all the care and support that special people give to Amanda it makes the sport a lot more fun for Amanda to enjoy playing volleyball because they enjoy it as much as her.

“I have no idea what I would do without the support I get from everyone, it makes playing volleyball that much better.”