With all of the new girls playing on Sutton’s volleyball team, can they join together to destroy Central Mass’s high school volleyball teams or will they crack under the pressure? 

After the long pre-season, the Sutton Volleyball team is ready to kick off the season today and hopefully win against Douglas (3:30 JV start, varsity to follow). 

“Yes, I do feel like we have the potential to bring home the win,” Coach Erin Messier says in response. “I think everybody needs to go in with a positive mindset and bring their energy. Everybody on the team from 1 to 14 needs to be ready to go because as we know, depending on who we’re playing, we will have different needs based on who’s out there on the court.”

Coach Messier seems very confident in the team’s success, but stays humble in stating that they will continue preparing and working hard to get there. 

The varsity volleyball team had a whopping six Seniors last year who graduated and moved onto college. What will this mean for the remaining players and their chemistry with the newbies who are new to the team this season?

Captain Jasmin Sabala speaks a few of her thoughts on this: “Honestly, even though we did lose a lot of Seniors, I still feel like our team chemistry this year is really close because a lot of the Juniors are already friends and the new Seniors and Juniors have really had a great team connection. The summer practices really helped build that team connection and I think we’re already off to a great start being close.”

Skill, obviously, is a very important factor for teams to have; however, even if each player is outstanding at what she does, without good teamwork it will be very challenging to be successful. Like they always say, “there is no I in team”, so if these players do not have good relationships with each other, who knows what’s to come for this team?

Coach Messier is open to using all of these new players. She has worked with every player and knows what strategies she has to bring out in order for these girls to win.

I asked Coach Messier what she will bring to the team this year to help with this.

“I think part of having a successful team means the team has good comradery and everyone works together well and is used to each other’s playing. So, I feel like during the preseason, really focusing on team bonding activities and doing various drills to learn how each other deals with certain situations on the court will definitely help us throughout the season to be successful.”

Looking back at last season, the team’s record of 4-14 took a toll on the girls’ mental health and spirit during the games. Hopefully this year, no matter what happens, the team will stay in good spirits and continue putting in hard work and lots of energy.