Fall Sports Volleyball Preview
The Girls Prep for Ninth FCIAC Victory
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Senior captains Colby Billhardt, Sarah Gorski, and Corinne Sommi will be returning to the court to lead the team to what looks to be another great season. They are coming off a 24-1 year and winning States and FCIACs.
Volleyball has to uphold the streak of winning FCIAC’s 15 out of the last 16 years and winning States and FCIAC’s for the last eight years. For this upcoming season the girls are still looking strong but are losing some key seniors. 2008 captain Phoebe Maglathlin said, “We’re losing seven seniors and six people play on the court at one time. We’ve lost a lot of seniors every year but coach LaRusso as well as the team always manages to bring it all together for another successful season.”
She cited some of the key people she says stepping into fill the gaps left by departing seniors: “Colby and Sarah returning juniors got a lot of playing time they’ll be really strong. Olivia Taylor didn't get much varsity time but shell is one of the outside hitters along with Corinne Sommi next season. Emily Cordner was center and will be replaced by Mackenzie Begley who shows a lot of potential. They'll be somewhat of a young team but I think with a lot of hard work coach, as she always does, will put together a strong team that will be very hard to beat. The amount of time we all have put in always shows every season,'” Maglathlin said in this interview before leaving to attend Duke University in Durham, North Carolina this fall.
Billhardt also had some comments on losing seniors and reshaping for next year, “We are losing some great players and we wish them well in their college athletic careers, but the good news is that the majority of the sophomores and juniors on the team played club volleyball all winter long. We trained very hard and competed in many tournaments across the country and had a lot of success. The way to improve in volleyball is to get as many touches on the ball as possible and many of us are treating volleyball as a year round sport,” Billhardt said.
The girls spent much of the summer on the court. “Most of us did many different college VB camps over the summer and in particular 22 players went to Bentley University in Massachusetts to participate in individual and then A team Camp. All of our positions should be covered. We look forward to getting back on Coach LaRusso's court this month and creating a new team!” Billhardt continued.
One team they are facing with some trepidation is Greenwich. They were defeated by the Cardinals: their first loss in five years. “The loss to Greenwich in the second match of the year was a shock and a disappointment, but it gave us a bigger goal to work toward through out the whole season. Not one game or match was taken for granted and we all worked hard to improve our skills and teamwork. When we met Greenwich later in the season we beat them and it was a great satisfaction to have done so,” Billhardt said.
Although the team has been very successful in the last 16 years, you can never take anything for granted. Coach LaRusso and the girls have a hard path ahead, but it looks like they have a more than good chance of putting together another great team and being the king of the Connecticut court once again.