The 2017 volleyball season has started for Pella High School. The team had eight seniors graduate last year, but has many returning players. There are a total of four seniors and five juniors, all returning varsity players.

“It always takes a while to build chemistry on the volleyball court. This team is really unified off of the court and continues to improve their on-court cohesion,” said varsity coach Catie Brand.

The captains for the volleyball team include  juniors Emily Holterhaus and Natalie Clayberg. Senior captains are Rebecca Dux, Cecily Johnson and Paighton Bogaards. There are also two more juniors and one more senior who also give leadership and are helping the team become unified.

“I think our toughest competition this year will be Indianola,” said senior Pauline Lopez. “But with the seniors bringing a positive attitude on and off the court, I think we’ll be really successful during the season.”

With many new, young players coming up to play this season, practice can be difficult.

The players have been getting ready not only physically, but mentally for the season and becoming better team players.

“For each match, we have a game plan based on the team’s defense and offense. We also have specific goals for us to focus on for each set. We want to get better every time we step on the floor, so that might be a serving goal, hitting goal, or covering something specific on defense,” said Brand.

“I think our strengths as a team are that we’re always building each other up on skill level and on a self-esteem level. We’re also growing as team during the game and with our knowledge of the game,” said Lopez.