Tuesday evening marked the beginning of the league season for the Wenatchee High School varsity volleyball team, and to kick things off, it was a rivalry game against Eastmont High School.
The game was set to begin at 7 p.m., and the bleachers were quick to fill up with the teams’ supporters. Lining one side of the court was the WHS student section, a sea of pink erupting in cheers and chants. On the other side of the court were the Eastmont fans, a motley arrangement of neon colors hollering on quips of encouragement. Ultimately, the night concluded with WHS sweeping Eastmont 25-14, 25-12 and 25-15.
The entire WHS team found themselves on the court that night. Their ability to work as a cohesive unit was put to the test and every member proved they could hold their own.
“The thing that I loved was that I was able to get every girl in on my bench,” said first-year head coach Jordan McGregor-Hansen. “It didn’t matter who we had in. We mixed up the rotations, and everyone played well together and played their roles. Every team has their starters, and that’s who I played in our first set, but I wanted to show that we have depth on our bench.”
Overall, the team had a strong performance and executed several notable plays.
“Nikki had some amazing swings and blocks, Cece had good blocks, a lot of the front row had some good swings and blocks and then our defense did well,” said junior Keira Demirjian.
In particular, one of the game’s highlights was an impressive kill by Nikki Reed.
“One of our bench players hit the ten-foot line, which is insane in volleyball,” said senior Bri Sackman. “Everyone got hyped up and super happy for her. Which was Nikki. It’s really hard to hit so short in the court if it’s a hard hit, so it’s like a college-level [move] if you’re able to do it.”
However, Tuesday wasn’t the first time the team had gotten a taste of success. Their first major win was at the SunDome Volleyball Festival.
“The SunDome tournament happens every year, and we went in with the third overall ranking and left first place,” Demirjian said. “Throughout the tournament, our team was solid. Our passing was good, and our hitting percentages were good. We were really happy with the numbers we put up as well as beating a team we’ve played previously this season. We’ve beaten them twice, they beat us once, and we finally got the last win at the SunDome championship. The Sundome tournament was our first time [this season] playing against other teams. We’ve been having long practices, and that was our first chance to play another team, and I thought we did well.”
Now, as the season rolls on, there will be plenty of games to fill the calendar with.
“We got West Valley next Tuesday,” McGregor-Hansen said. “They were in the district championship with us last year, [and] we split the league title with them. They’re always a solid program. Then we go to Gonzaga prep on Saturday, and they’re also a strong program. Those are going to be two really competitive, really good games for us.
On Thursday, WHS would again sweep the opposition, this time Sunnyside, in their second league game. The final scores were 25-5, 25-7 and 25-12.
WHS suffered their first loss of the season to Gonzaga Preparatory School on Saturday, Sept. 16.
