Building Friendships and Memories
The Bison volleyball team honored seniors and presented a check for Volley for the Cure on Thursday, Oct. 13 at a home game against Orange.
Although faced with a challenging season, the Bison volleyball team persevered with teamwork and has ended this season with strong bonds and positive memories.
Co-captain Senior Reese Muttillo explained how this year for her has been unlike any other.
“I’ve had the most fun on the court this year,” she said. “The team has definitely had a different level of chemistry on the floor, and I just love the girls that I have played with.”
Muttillo feels that her experience in volleyball has helped her in other aspects of her life. The skills she has learned in volleyball have made her more of a leader.
“You have to push your mental walls to play this sport,” she said. “You can earn and lose points so quickly.”
Muttillo explained her personal journey becoming captain this season.
“It’s a pretty big role, and I took it very seriously,” she said. “Everyone has a different talent they can contribute to the team: being confident and ready to pick up those leadership roles like encouraging teammates, contacting the coach and being aware of what needs to be worked on in practices.”
Co-Captain Sepanta Entezari stresses how important strong friendships are on the team. Entezari emphasized that in volleyball, it’s particularly important to trust your teammates.
“There’s area on the court where you overlap, and you have to trust the people you play with and know they have your back and know they trust you,” she said.
Entezari explained that the strong connections between teammates helped create a positive atmosphere this season in spite of what their win-loss record may show.
“Though a team is usually defined by their record and how they do, I think our volleyball team this year is a lot more than that,” she said. “Yes we haven’t won many games, and clearly everybody understands that to gain respect on a sports team, means you should win a lot of games, and that’s understandable.”
“But I think we had a lot of fun, and the girls I played with are amazing people,” she added. “We had great coaching and we just enjoyed spending time together, I think that matters the most.”
Freshman Ela Sasmaz looked forward to volleyball practices this year.
“It’s a lot of good teamwork and it teaches you a lot of communication and working together,” she said. “Volleyball seems a lot easier than it is; you really have to play smart and think things through.”
The strong connections between volleyball players have resulted in great teamwork on the court this year.
“You’re going to have a lot of fun, the coaches are sweet and people see volleyball as an easy sport to pick up, but there’s a lot of hard work put into it.” Muttillo noted. “Volleyball’s a mental sport, if you’re resilient on the court so much so you can make a mistake and get out of it, it’s a huge deal.”
