The Atoms Girls Volleyball Team is seeing improvements in their record from last year. With a 1-15 record last year, the team has already improved their record. A few weeks into the season and the team has already won 2 games, which is more than last year.
For girls Varsity volleyball, Annandale normally falls at around 6-7th place in the district, ¨So far, we’ve won one district game,¨ said Senior captain Madalyn Dixon, ¨we´re doing great this season and we hope to win more in the future,¨
Dixon is a 4 year Varsity member and a 1 year Varsity captain. The team has 14 members, including 3 freshmen. ¨Everybody’s been working so hard,¨ Said Dixon, ¨Our goals are to win more games this season, and have fun.¨
Last year, the team had no freshmen on Varsity, so 3 is a big difference, ¨I love playing volleyball on the high school team,¨ said freshman Margaret Moreland, ¨it’s different than the teams I’ve played with before, but super fun,
¨I’m growing my skills a lot this season with all of the practice and coaching,¨ said Moreland, who played club volleyball prior to being an Atom, ¨I want to get better and round off any skills I struggle with, and I want to become a stronger blocker/hitter.¨
Moreland shared how being a freshman on Varsity has been going for her, ¨I think I fit into the team reasonably well, but I am a freshman so a lot of the team was already together from last year.
¨I think having other freshmen on the team helps the transition to high school because we are all new to it together,¨ said Moreland, ¨Our team atmosphere is really good for the most part but sometimes we get down when we are losing or don´t think we are playing our best.¨
Margaret Moreland is the younger sister on the team, as her older sister Tilly Moreland also plays,
¨I think our team is a lot better than last year,¨ said Tilly Moreland, ¨we have a lot of new additions and some really talented freshmen that add a lot to the team,¨
The team lost 4 seniors last year, but still hope to improve their record, ¨I´m hopeful that we´ll go up in the district rankings this season and hopefully beat a couple other schools that we were close to winning against last year,¨ said Tilly Moreland.
The Varsity team practices from 5-7 pm every day, working to improve, ¨Our practices usually start with warmups then drills with a partners or training in our positions,¨ explained Tilly Moreland, ¨then in the last half of practice we usually play 6 on 6 to get more experience in a game-like situation.¨
Junior Anna Fitzgerald said, ¨I think we’ve done a good job staying positive this year, but now it’s time for us to lock in.¨
Fitzgerald and Tilly Moreland are both in their second year on the Varsity team, ¨My goals for us this season are to win more games and have a stronger sense of community within the team,¨ said Fitzgerald.
¨Usually we have team bondings where we go eat together at Chick-Fil-A,¨ said Tilly Moreland, ¨we´re planning a new team bonding to decorate our shirts for Dig Pink.¨
The oldest Moreland sister is unable to participate in DigPink – an annual volleyball game held in October to raise awareness for breast cancer where students dress up in pink, create and perform short dance routines with partners of their choice – because of a broken ankle.
¨I think team bondings like these help our team chemistry by allowing us to get to know each other outside of the sport, ¨ said Matilda Tilly, ¨this helps us see each other as not just teammates but also friends.
¨I´m hopeful that we´ll go up in the district rankings this season and hopefully beat a couple other schools that we were close to winning against last year,¨ said Tilly Moreland.
Overall the team is off to a better start than last year, and hope to win more games this season, starting with the match against Hayfield on wednesday at 7:00 pm. You can follow the Annandale Girls Volleyball team on instagram at @atomsvarsityvball.
