Girls’ varsity volleyball triumphed over Shrewsbury with a score of 3-0 at a home match on Thursday, April 1. 

The team played back to back games against Shrewsbury on Tuesday and Thursday and were excited to beat them with scores of 3-1 and 3-0, respectively. At the conclusion of Thursday’s game, senior night festivities took place to applaud and celebrate the seniors on the team. 

“I think [the game] went really well,” senior captain Rachel White said. “We worked really well on the court together. They were a really good team so we had to work really hard.”

Going into the game, the team was a little bit nervous because they knew the talent the opposing team brought.

“We were definitely all a little nervous just because they have a ton of good players on their team,” senior captain Yasmin Lee said. “We definitely were practicing really hard this week to prepare for them, so in the first set especially we were all pretty nervous and jittery, but that stopped after the first set and once we got into it.”

In the first set, play was back and forth throughout the majority of points. The score stayed relatively even until Algonquin was able to gain a lead towards the end and win 25-20. 

In the second set, the girls made a significant comeback after being down several points and ended up winning 25-23. 

“There was one point in the second set where we were down six or seven points,” White said. “We were able to come back with accurate serving and having high energy and not letting anything drop, and we were able to come back and win the set.”

The team had the largest lead of the game in the third and final set, and won 25-9.

At the conclusion of the game, the senior night celebration took place. 

“Everyone on the team did such a great job [with senior night],” senior captain Maeve Hamling said. “They made posters of the seniors, did our faces and cut out bodies and everything and they had the JV and JV2 teams make posters for us. They had baskets with candy and everything, so it was very nice. They surprised us with streamers and we got to walk into the gym with a lot of happiness.”

Due to COVID-19, the season looked different. Minimal changes have been made to the game itself, but opposing team interactions have been limited.

“It’s changed, not too much about the actual game, just before we usually high five the other team and now we’re just on one side and we wave to them,” White said. “Also, in between each set we usually switch sides, but this year everyone stays on one side.”

Another effect of COVID-19 regulations is the season length, as the amount of games has been decreased compared to previous years. 

“We’ve definitely had way less games than we usually do,” Lee said. “We only have 12 this year and it’s only against six different towns but we usually have 15-18 [games], and we also used to have scrimmages too. Our season is definitely a lot shorter than it usually is.”

With three weeks left in the season, the team looks forward to the second half of the season and hope to continue their success. The girls will play Marlborough Tuesday and Thursday next week.