Rising Stars Step Up to the Plate
By Brooke Highmark, Staff Writer

Despite losing some key players and coming off a rough season, this years Girls Volleyball team will still be competitive. Things are looking up for the program, and with several new players, there will be a lot of competition for spots.
Although tryouts have already taken place, some JV players will still have the chance to move up depending on their performance. New Varsity Sophomore Hailey Pritchett explains, This is said to be one of the most competitive years the volleyball program has had in a while and it should be a good season.
To start, some of the new players to look out for will be libero and DS Avery Stanfill, opposite/outside hitter Emma Fairchild, \Sophia Shaver, and outside hitter Abby Siess.
Im really excited to see how this season turns out, said Stanfill. A huge part of this season will be the Senior leadership toward the Freshmen. Our team is filled with leaders and my goal is for them to help shape and mold the Freshmen to become leaders themselves, especially because were losing the bulk of our team next year. The Seniors should set a mental and physical example for the girls who will have to step up next season. With injuries, however, theres a possibility that there will be two or three Freshmen playing Varsity this year.
Coach Crutcher has set some goals for his team this year, including mentorship, a good team dynamic, competing well, and working together as one unit.
The Varsity girls are coming out of a rough season last year. They started off 0-7 and ended the season 7-21.
We had a lot of great players but not a great record. A lot of this came from the multiple injuries we had, which forced us to use a lot of subs and keep switching our lineup around, said Crutcher.
The team lost some key players such as Emma Gustafson and Sarah Elizabeth Williams. The teams back row strength centered around Gustafson, who led the team in digs and serving percentage, while Williams dominated up at the net and lead the team in kills.
Its very hard to replace these two, but I know that our Seniors will step up and their leadership should be strong, said Hailey Pritchett. Last years season gave us a good start for this years season; we have a lot of returning players and Im excited to see how it goes, she said.
With ten Seniors and only one more player from each class, this seems like the year for the Wildcats to have a good season. They play in their first game on September 3rd against Affton High school.