The volleyball squad does their regular warm-ups in preparation for the upcoming games.
Photo by Martin Musialczyk
By Cendri Johnson
The SCC women’s volleyball team is practicing relentlessly for the Northwest Athletic Conference — also known as NWAC — Championship, to be held Nov. 16-20. During this tournament, SCC’s girls will be competing against the top teams from other community colleges in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and British Columbia.
Kristina Nielsen, an outside and middle hitter for the team, described the pre-game time as follows: “We just huddle up and we get this total, like, unity sort of feeling right before the game that can carry us all the way.”
In preparation for the daunting task that is the NWAC championship, right side hitter Taylor Alexander said that the team has been focusing on “six on six and what we can do as a team … Our rotations and different plays we can run in them.”
A strength of the team this year is undeniably its size and diversity.
Kyla Pitzman, a middle blocker, said, “We have a lot bigger of a team this year so we had a lot more options with where we can put people, and who can go in to give other people a chance to rest or a day off.” More specifically, the team has a “strong offense, in a way that the other hitters and I like in the front row, we can all play every position.”
“[Coach] Raquel did a good job recruiting so we had like a lot of different variety,” said setter Carlie Howard.
Although the team works extremely well together and possesses a very strong group dynamic, this also means that “when we lose one person out from our little tight knit, it’s extremely hard to pull them back … once one person goes, it’s easy for the rest to follow suit,” according to Nielsen.
For Alexander, playing with this team can be described as “truly one of the most … heartwarming feelings to look around and know that everyone else wants the same thing just as bad as you want it … we’ll be those fourteen girls who did it.”
When asked what they would do to celebrate if the players won the championship, the answers varied, but many proclaimed that they would want to include the Phin Fam.
According to Pitzman, if they won the championship, she would want to have a “big cry and giant hug” with the rest of the team. Winning the championship would mean the world to these players, but when it comes down to it, outside utility player Josie Dalrymple said, “just being on this team is reward enough.”
There will be a home game on from 7-9 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 7, and the players would greatly appreciate the support of any fans able to make it to the game. As Dalrymple said, “We win and lose as a team no matter what happens.”
