The first Saturday-held practice came along and all of the seniors of volleyball were standing in a circle looking at a newspaper.
“Morgan, you look so cute!” Sara Jordan, senior, said to her teammate Morgan Beil, senior, while they looked at their pictures in the Suburban Journal.
On the third day of this season’s volleyball tryouts, a photographer from the Suburban Journal walked into the gym asking for pictures of the senior girls to feature in the upcoming issue of the Suburban Journal.
The seven returning varsity players were taken onto a separate court where they played and were photographed.
“I was so excited!” Jordan said.
The Suburban Journal wrote, “The Mustangs were one of the area’s most balanced teams in 2009 with five players having between 150 and 200 kills. Four of those came back for their senior years: outside hitters Jessica Zombo and Culver Randolph; middle hitter Morgan Biel and right side hitter Katie Deutschmann.”
The senior girls’ varsity volleyball players are getting a lot of attention from the community as well as competitor schools due to their high level of talent.
Szevery said the publicity puts a lot of pressure on the girls.
“You’ll have to keep up your game at all times,” Szevery said to the team. “With a big reputation, you guys can’t afford to lose to low level teams.”
“Even though a few of our seniors have already committed to a college, this is really good media for our players,” Kesley Sidney, senior, said. “Especially the juniors who are on the team and still looking for college offers.”
Sidney said being in the Suburban Journal attracts a bigger crowd to matches, along with college scouts.
Szevery told the Suburban Journal, “We were young last year, but we expected to do some damage, and we had a very good season. We have a lot of strong offense coming back and the same two setters running the offense. We have seven seniors on the team and they are not only working hard but they all get along and mesh well together.”
Szevery said the team has great expectations for the season and that they don’t want to look too far ahead.
“We have a couple of tournaments early in the year [Rockwood Summit and Oakville] which we have a chance to do well in. We will focus on those and go on from there,” Szevery said in the Suburban Journal.
The team decided to take it one match at a time, not playing down to their opponents’ levels. Through this tactic, they plan on going far this volleyball season and the seniors plan to end their high school volleyball career in great triumph.