On October 13, Henry Clay’s Girls Volleyball team wrapped up their 2022 regular season with a record of 9-23. Despite their record, the team displayed growth and comradery throughout the season. Sophomore Corynne Caldwell, a setter for HC (the main contributor to offense in volleyball), has played an important role on the team this year.

“This season, we had our ups and downs,” Caldwell said, “Obviously, our record wasn’t great, but I think overall we fought really hard for a lot of the games and I think we definitely all got better throughout the season.”

Many players feel that the HC Volleyball coaching staff pushes their players to stay motivated and improve their athletic skills in volleyball.

“The coaches give you feedback and they give you criticism,” Caldwell said. “I like that because it helps us all get better. Volleyball is like a complete team sport, so you want to be better for your team because if you’re better it makes your team better and you’re helping out your team.”

Many coaches use the term “coachable” as a key characteristic of good players. Abby Cahill, a senior on the team, has played for HC all four years of high school.

“I would say every player on the team is coachable,” Cahill said, “which means that they’re able to learn a new skill no matter what and make changes in the middle of the game. Every player on the team this year, and throughout the years that I’ve played on the team have grown, more than I could imagine, including myself, and I would say that was our biggest strength.”

Freshman Emma Jane Hurley, a first-year varsity player, emphasized the growth that the volleyball team has experienced, specifically in the occurrence of disagreements.

“Off the court, there were definitely disagreements,” Hurley said, “but I think on the court we definitely got over those and even off the court, we tried to limit those and when there was some we agreed to disagree and moved on.”

The HC Girls Volleyball Team feels that they pushed through challenges and put effort into every game.

“We could’ve done better on our record because it wasn’t the best,” Hurley said, “but I do think that we played a really tough schedule and dealing with that tough schedule, we handled it pretty well. We didn’t really give up and maybe if we lost a set by a lot, the next set we’d come back fighting even harder.”

On October 19, the team played their first game in the district tournament against Scott County. While they experienced a loss, the players felt that they fought hard during the game.

“In the district tournament, we took Scott County to 4 sets,” Caldwell said. “In the first two sets we could’ve done a lot better, but in the second two sets, we improved a lot from the first two. If we had played the entire game like we played those second two sets, we definitely could’ve won.”

“It was sad to lose that first game,” Cahill said, “but Scott County is a good team. I’ll give it to them. We fought hard and I think we played a great game, so I’m not disappointed in how we played.”

During last year’s 2021 season, the team faced a number of losses, but used the season as motivation to better themselves.

“Coming off of last year, we didn’t have a great start,” Hurley said, “but we had all the pieces we needed to have a good season, we just needed to glue them all together.”

Cahill believes it was a combination of factors that helped the team bond this season.

“We had a lot of returning varsity,” Cahill said. “In the previous season we didn’t grow a lot, so I think this season really helped us grow.”

HC students who are interested in playing girls volleyball should consider trying out in mid-July next year.