While steadying her knees and getting into position, outside hitter Brooke Stephens took a deep breath, preparing herself for the ball coming toward her. She shot the ball, earning the girls the final point needed for the win. 

On Tuesday, Sept. 20 at 7 p.m, the team faced Winter Springs, winning 3-0 (25-21, 25-19, 25-21). It was a slow game with a lot of delays, like a broken AC, score table problems, and even the referees having problems making calls, causing the team’s rhythm to be thrown off. 

Although it was a less than ideal situation for the players, they found their groove when Stephens got the winning kill in the third set after a bad call was made. This game was an example of the team being ready to switch things up and get out of their comfort zone in order to combat the unexpected. 

“I hit a lot of cross court shots last night. Usually my go to swing is right down the line but they were blocking that pretty well so I had to mix it up,” Stephens said. 

Middle blocker Nadya Nute expressed other challenges they faced and how important it is to work together, even if everyone is a little bit off their game. 

“We weren’t prepared to go out and play, we were all a little out of it and tired so it made that first set kind of tight but after that we got our stuff together which made things a lot better,” Nute said. 

Besides their challenges, the team was proud of their defense and passing throughout the game. 

Since the start of the season, the team has had practices almost every day of the week after school to work on new plays and techniques. They have had a busy schedule attending the Berkeley Prep Premier Varsity high school tournament Sept. 16-17 with other game days varying throughout the week. According to Stephens, the team often prepares for their games by discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the teams they are going up against. 

“We talk about the strengths and weaknesses of other teams so that we know what to expect from them,” Stephens said. 

Stephens gave insight into the things that the team does well and the things they need to work on. Their main goals for the rest of the season are to strengthen their chemistry as a whole and make it to states. 

“I think the team needs to work on starting the game off stronger. It takes us a while before we really get into the groove of the game,” Stephens said. “We are really good at fighting until the very end. We don’t give up easily even if we are down.”

The team is getting ready for their next game against Leon, from Tallahassee, on Friday, Sept. 23 at 7 p.m at home. Tickets can be found on gofan.com.