Photo by Kaity Shaughnessy
By Theo Severud
Sports Reporter
The girls’ volleyball team is set to play Medford on Thursday in the first round of the State Tournament. Senior captains Stella Owings, Catherine Patti, and Ella Kim sat down with Denebola to answer questions about the upcoming playoffs.
What are the team’s goals for the playoffs?
Patti: “Our goal is to bring our best skills and energy to our playoff games and hopefully that’ll turn into an exciting series of wins. We expect to be up against some strong teams from the start, but our preparation and determination will make us strong competitors no matter who we play.”
Owings: “I would say that we just want to play as best as we can. We’re not really expecting to win states, we just want to play and play as well as we team’s
Kim: “Our teams goals are to play consistently and be especially strong in fundamentals, especially in defense, blocking and attacking.”
How is the team feeling before the first game?
Kim: “I think we are all very excited for our first playoff game, especially after that last game at LS. We want to be as pumped up and energetic, if not more, at our playoff game.”
Patti: “We’re all definitely very excited for our first playoff game where we’ll get to test the hard work we’ve put in and show what we’ve got.¨
Who are going to be key players in the team’s success during the playoffs?
Patti: “Ella Kim [on offense] and Rebecca Friedman [on defense] – and both for their serving.”
Kim: “In the playoffs, I think the setters will play a key role. Coach just pulled up Danielle Dinisco, a sophomore, to play with us as a setter and she has very good location and a consistent serve. Ultimately I think consistency and energy will win us any game.”
Owings: “Jessica Wu will certainly need to be on her ‘A’ game, along with our liberos.”
Who are going to be toughest teams if you move on and how will the team have to perform to beat them?
Owings: “Newton North and King Philip’s are always usually up there. We’re just gonna need to make sure we focus and not let our mistakes get to us.”
Patti: “Newton North and Needham are probably going to be a couple of the top teams. We’ll have to make sure our defense and serve receive are strong against these teams and that we can attack through and around their blocking.”
