Unity On And Off The Court

A mix of youth and experience is proving to be a winning combo for CB volleyball.

 It is very rare to see a Varsity volleyball team have freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors on the same team. It is also very rare to see that team have much success.

The Christian Brothers Varsity volleyball squad (10-9, 0-1 CVC League), have a rarity that many of the teams they play cannot coincide with yet this team embraces it.

“It kind of throws teams off, so I guess [the team’s diversity] gives us an advantage,” says senior outside hitter Colleen Donovan ’13. “I like having the young girls on the team,”

The young girls on the team include freshmen sensation Elizabeth Robinson ’16 and sophomore standout Nastassja Bowman ’15. Co-captain Meghan Larson ’13 has high praise in particular for the talented sophomore.

“[Nastassja] shows a lot of leadership on the court for being so young,” the senior says. “I think that’s really good for the future.”

Zaire Dartis ’14 is another talented player who will contribute in the future, although she must sit out this season due to CIF transfer rules after moving over from Kennedy High School.

Even though this team may look young on paper, they have plenty of varsity level experience. Only three girls on the squad are first year varsity player. Six players on this year’s team played varsity last year as underclassmen, including Bowman and talented junior Jaymee-Lee Bulda ’14.

Also, Bernadette Swain ’13 joins Donovan and Larson as senior leaders with three years of varsity experience.

This tremendous amount of varsity experience will be crucial as the Lady Falcons enter league with high expectations.

“I think we [can win league],” Larson says. “It’s going to be a lot tougher this season because we have Bella Vista looking good, Oakmont is obviously looking way better than they have in the previous years and Casa Roble will probably pull out to be a strong team.

“It will definitely be more competition this year rather than the previous years.”

She couldn’t be more correct as the defending Capital Valley Conference (CVC) League champions will face Bella Vista (21-3, 2-0 CVC League) twice, Casa Roble (17-10, 1-1 CVC League) twice, and Oakmont (23-2, 2-0 CVC League) one more time — not an easy task for any team.

Make sure to come out and support our Lady Falcons when they return for home games next Monday, October 8^th against Del Campo and Wednesday, October 10^th against Casa Roble. Games will start at 5:00.