The Student News Site of Harvard-Westlake School

The Harvard-Westlake Chronicle

The Student News Site of Harvard-Westlake School

The Harvard-Westlake Chronicle

The Student News Site of Harvard-Westlake School

The Harvard-Westlake Chronicle

    MaxPreps ranks girls’ volleyball 1st in nation

    By Charlton Azuoma

    The girls’ volleyball team is ranked number one in the nation by MaxPreps.com as of last Sunday. The team has a win percentage of .923, an overall record 12 wins and a single loss to Marymount High School.

    The team has defeated many highly ranked teams to earn their spot at number one, including beating both La Costa Canyon and Assumption High School in the Durango Fall Classic Tournament, where the team took first place.

    “There’s never pressure to perform because we don’t think about that… we only think about get

    ting better,” opposite hitter Christina Higgins ’11 said.

    “We have a target on our back now after the Durango Tournament… but we don’t look at statistics or rankings, we just focus on what’s ahead,” defensive libero Anne Cohen ’11 said.

    The players practiced at school during the whole summer. They also participated in two tournaments to prepare for the season.

    Black is glad the Wolverines have been recognized for their success.

    “I thought it was a really nice thing to happen for us.  I was pleased that the team’s performance warranted such a nice recognition,” Head Coach Adam Black said.

    “It feels really good because we’ve worked really hard and our coaches have been training us really well. I guess it’s just really nice to see that all our hard work has earned us something good,” Higgins said.

    “I think it takes a lot of practices, a lot of hard quality work both mentally and physically, and cohesion,” Coach Black said.

    The team is stacked with senior talent this year as three seniors on the team have already committed to play for colleges. Higgins has committed to the University of California, Berkeley, Anne Cohen to Johns Hopkins University, and Danielle Salka to Yale University.

    “Talent is always nice to have, but what makes it special is who the individuals are that form the team.  We have wonderful people on the team and in the program who work really hard and are a lot of fun to be around,” Coach Black said.

    The team has to work even harder maintain its #1 status now that ACL injury has sidelined starting setter Danielle Salka ’11 and a shoulder injury has kept Milena Popovic ’11 off the court.

    Salka’s injury will sideline her for a minimum of 6 months Popovic will be returning to play in four weeks.

    “We’re starting from scratch, we lost some really key players so we’re trying to focus on filling in those roles,” Cohen said.

    The team will play at this year’s Homecoming against #43 Dos Pueblos High School who has an overall record of 8-2-0.

    “The only thing to do is to move forward and work best with what we have. Losing them was a huge loss, but our team has come together and we take each game point by point,” setter and captain Kellie Barnum ’11 said.

    “We’re going to go even harder now and hopefully we’ll come out on top,” middle hitter Amanda Hall ’11 said.

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    MaxPreps ranks girls’ volleyball 1st in nation