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Photo by Paige Sanders

The volleyball team celebrates after winning a set against Shakopee in the quarter-finals. They went on to place 4th in the state tournament.

Students and staff were proud of the varsity volleyball team as they went to State this year. All grades were represented in the team. They have had a great season with their head coach as Bob Fisher and senior captains, Britta Borrman as libero, Kate Raddatz as back row specialist/setter, Olivia Walsh as setter and junior captain Maddie Whittington as middle hitter.

The team went to State Nov. 8 and continued to play through Nov. 10. The games were held at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. The girls won their first game against Shakopee, and as the tournament went on, they also played against Eagan and Lakeville South, which they lost. The team came in fourth in the 3AAA division in State.

The team worked hard to be able to go to State. For example, they practiced six days a week for two and a half hours. That hard work is what got them their wins this year. Their wins include getting championship in conference, winning all of sections and two of their games during State. Working this hard comes with struggles that need to be faced.

“Getting to know how to work next to each other and we had a couple of health issues,” Fisher said.

“The ability to push through, a lot of us have been going through injury and aches and pains here and there, and we’ve been able to keep ourselves playing at a strong level throughout all of it,” Whittington added.

The team was beyond excited to be able to have the chance to go to State. They have never been prouder of each other and their ability to keep progressing throughout the season. This got them to their highlights in the season. These involved them beating Shakopee three out of four sets with winning scores of 25-15, 25-23 and 15-8 during State. Beating Eagan in the first set 25-21 was another highlight for them during State.

Preparing for State comes with new techniques and even harder work. This involves new training, workouts, even watching videos of games they have lost to find the errors and make them better. Making new strategies was also part of preparing. Those strategies include separate setters practices and practice plans to help organize what they will be doing during each practice. That makes it easier for the team to get everything done efficiently. This was all new to this season since the girls were determined to make it to State this year.

“What was different this year was on those Saturday practices we did an hour of lifting, and then an hour of watching a film which is super helpful because we would watch either games we played and learn from that or we would watch films from other teams playing,” Borrman said.

“I love how close we are. I think our team has really good chemistry and we get along really well. We haven’t had any problems with people getting along or anything. I think we all work really well together on the court. I think that definitely adds to our success on the court,” Borrman said.