Volleyball claims 6A region 2 title after beating Hunter

Volleyball+claims+6A+region+2+title+after+beating+Hunter

THE VOLLEYBALL team has done it—they won the 5A re- gion 2 title. The underdog story has been completed. It was as- sumed that Granger High’s vol- leyball team was going to suffer the same fate that they have suf- fered for years and years, but thIS team was determined to prove the doubters wrong.

“We come, and we surprise teams. We are the underdogs, but this new mindset we have has helped and so has the new coach- ing. We are told that there should be no pressure we just have to go out there and play,” Lily Yu (12), a defensive specialist, said.

The players can feel the differ-

ence this year as opposed to the years before, and it has a lot to do with the new coaching that was introduced for the year and the philosophy that it brought to the locker room.

“It was like there was no unity on the team last year. So this is a new year, and it was a new team. We came up with different say- ings for each game that mainly focused on how we wanted our mindset to be,” Jennifer Taula (12), an opposite hitter, said.

“We have a pregame ritual where we go to a private area and the coach plays audio that gets us into the right mindset. We also pray before the game be- cause most kids on the team are religious, and it helps us come to-

gether,” Taula said.
One of the struggles of the

team was having to bring all the grades into unison so they could work together.

There were inexperienced players on the team, and there were seniors who have been on the team since they were fresh- man. Chemistry is what the team wanted, and it was chemistry they created through one saying: “No pressure, just play.”

“There was a gap between the grades, but we did not let that stop us we just followed our ‘no pressure, just play’ philosophy,” Rebecca Moleni (11), a team co- captain, said.

Although the players do all the work out on the court, they are

not the masterminds behind the whole game— that is up to the coaches. This year the Granger volleyball team coaches decided to start in a new direction for the season and see where it landed them. They ended up winning the region title, and Coach Gasper could not be more thankful.

“We have a young program, and our girls have worked re- ally hard and have sacri ced a lot from summer until now. Our region title came from that hard work and sacri ce,” Coach Gas- per, varsity head, said.

The next game for the Granger volleyball team is against Ameri- can Fork on their road to the state title, and with another win, they will advance.