Due to new social distancing guidelines, the Girls Varsity Volleyball team started off this fall practicing outside on Taylor Field for the first two weeks of its season. However, on September 28, the team started to play in the Field House again.

Coaches are integrating drills that can be done within smaller groups, to minimize the risk of infection. Since the fall season isn’t competitive, the team is focusing on improving its technical skills, whether passing, setting or hitting. During a normal season, players regularly use 6-on-6 scrimmages as a way to work on their skills in a game-like setting. Atalia Navarro ’21 said, “The hardest part for us has been [the restrictions against] scrimmaging each other, and so we’ve been focusing more on 3-on-3s.”

Recently, the team built in conditioning to the start of practices by incorporating stretches and workouts. Co-captain Ashley Kase ’21 said, “We are trying to focus more on building a strong team dynamic this year, because we don’t have a competitive season.”

In addition to adapting to the new guidelines and a larger number of players trying out this season, the team has also had to adapt to new coaches, Head Coach Ms. Christie Rawlings and Assistant Coach Ms. Elizabeth Dittmer. When partnering up for practice, the team has tried to pair new players with more experienced ones. Partner pairs also switch up, so teammates can get to know each other better and are able to play with different people. The team has team dinner every night and optional team practices every Saturday on the beach volleyball courts. “Even though it’s a bigger team than normal, I feel like we are closer than normal too,” said co-captain Mary Papadopoulos ’21.

Even with all the restraints and difficulties they have faced during practices, the team is excited to be able to be together and to play volleyball again. “We have a lot of new players this year, and we are all very excited to be able to play with them,” said Kase.