Volleyball Season 2023

The first sports season of the year is Boys and Girls Volleyball. Since I did SAISA Volleyball last year, and I enjoyed it, I thought that it would be fun to do it again, and hopefully be able to travel with the team one last time. 

This year, we are starting with a much more advanced team, in terms of skills and teamwork, which already has us off to a great start. We practice 3 times a week; Tuesdays and Fridays 3:30-5, and Saturdays from 8:00-10:00. We have started doing weekly games on Fridays, and have had 2 so far.

Although we haven’t won any of the games yet, the first game was a really nice opportunity for us to feel out playing as a team, and how we work together, as well as playing a proper game against opponent’s to become familiar with the rules and proceedings. Our second game was where I felt our group started coming together as a ‘team’- and we started playing more strategically using positions. In the first and last sets of this game, we came extremely close to winning- with a 24-26 finish, so we are definitely making visible progress.

 

Hitting Practice Before the Game (Photo Credits: Thisath Piyatunga)

Last year I wasn’t fully comfortable in a given position, however this year I am really enjoying playing in the middle/outside hitter position, and I am working mainly on improving my hitting technique. Now that we have started playing in these positions a little more, it’s beneficial for the whole team, but especially the hitters and setters, as we are able to start feeling out how we work together- i.e- how we want our sets, who takes the hit, and working on the placement of the ball to score strategic points.

This Friday we have another game, which I am quite excited about. I want to focus working on playing better under pressure, and decision making in a game setting- as I tend to panic a lot. This Saturday after the game, the teams will be announced, So I am quite nervous about that, but also excited to see what happens.