Gallery • 4 Photos

Photo Courtesy Brad Cornell - Countryside Photo McCarthy (left) Koehler (middle) and Harriman (right) communicate with each other to set up for a block in a victory against the 2-2 raptors of East Ridge. McCarthy states, “I want everyone to be really quip to communicate.” Stillwater took this game at home on breast cancer awareness night.

“We have bonded super well. It did not take long for us to begin to click with each other, and become close friends. Just the fact that we spend 6 days a week together, it makes it really easy to get to know each other. Our new friendships truly show on the court, the fact that we all like each other makes a huge difference. It improves our communication, and our overall quality of play. It just makes volleyball so much more fun,” senior captain Sarah McCarthy said.

This year the girls varsity volleyball team is very diverse with all different ranges of grades from freshmen to seniors. This year a freshmen made the team, creating more diversity but it does not stop their friendship from showing on the court.

Last year, the Ponies had a record of 19-9 but have not been able to win a conference title since 2009. This year the girls have started with a record of 7-4.

“We haven’t won a conference title since 2009, and our team this year has every ability to earn that title. We work extremely hard, and all of us want to win sometimes more than we want to breathe. I am holding us to such a high standard, because I truly believe in my teammates, and I know we can do whatever we set our mind to,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy has set a high goal for these girls this year and looks forward to showing the school that volleyball is the game to play.

This year, there is one freshman Maddie Whittington, and three sophomores, Olivia Walsh, Alexa Oeltjen and Reece Koehler.

In many sports, including volleyball, younger players and talents are coming up this year and showing everyone that age does not matter, it is about talent and effort.

“It’s fun having a lot of younger girls on the team this year. It’s like being a big sister to all four of them. We love having Maddie on the team. She blends right in with all of us so well sometimes it hard to tell she is a freshman,” Rachel Houle said.

This year, Rachel Houle is a junior and has been playing volleyball for nine years. Houle is enjoying and having a lot of fun with the diversity of this team and excited for the rest of the season.  As Houle said, it is like being a big sister to all four of them.

Aside from the diverse age, the girls want to have a successful year and show people who the Ponies are. They want to show their true passion about the sport on and off the court.

“Our team has a great blend of experience and talent.  Our players don’t care much about the grade that their teammates are in.  They are most interested in the effort and passion that each one on the team brings to the court,” coach Bob Fisher said.

Fisher has been coaching high school volleyball for eight years and this is his fourth year at Stillwater. Each year he wants the girls to improve and learn from match to match, hoping to win that conference title.

“We are most successful when our own goals take a back seat to our team goals.  When we play for each other instead of ourselves the games become so much more meaningful and fun.   When teams embrace and believe that, we accomplish so much more than we ever thought we could,” said Fisher.

“Volleyball is important because some of my best friends and I, both get to play what we love side-by-side everyday,” Houle said.