Jaiyana Samji and Kim Pereira / Staff reporters
As the senior girls’ volleyball team kicked off the season, they struggled to win most of their games. Gleneagle has had eight matches so far and have only won one of those games. The team’s last game will be held today, November 3, at Heritage Woods secondary school at 6pm.
The groups first win was against Port Moody secondary school on October 27 with a nail biting four sets, as Port Moody almost came back in the third and fourth set. Moody beat Talons 25-18, almost losing as Gleneagle fought hard to tie the score. In set four, talons closed the game by winning 25-23.
After celebrating the win, Gleneagle also held senior night, where they said goodbye to the grade 12s playing their last home game.
The team’s worst game was against Riverside, on October 13, With the best score for talons being 10-25, According to Yui Nakamura.
“The score was not our best, 10-25 does not reflect our team’s efforts”. -(Nakamura)
The team’s community coach Les Lau believes that they have not won any games yet due to the team’s lack of confidence as it has been affecting their movement.
“They are nervous, so their feet aren’t moving the way they want them to,” said Lau.
“Most of them are quite athletic but it is in their heads”
Lau believes that the team’s greatest strength is their camaraderie as they work well with each other, they don’t get down on each other, and a lot of the time they try to help each other.
“Part of that is their strength, but it is also their weakness because sometimes they’re too nice and they are not competitive enough, so they don’t quite push each other enough in that aspect” –(Lau)
Lau plans to help his team improve this season by going back to the basics first as a lot of them are new to volleyball. He plans to work more on their core and movement training as well as some of the fundamentals of volleyball as he believes that it will help to build their confidence a bit more.
Lau is excited to see his team finally gain the confidence they need to be relaxed enough to play and really start to enjoy the game more.
“I’ve always told them, it’s not about winning, it’s just having the enjoyment and when you do play well, the winning just comes with it” –(Lau)
Makenna Kamiya, a grade 11 team member, hasn’t been able to compete with the team due to an injury but has been to games and practices to observe and support the team. Kamiya notes the reason why the team hasn’t been as successful as they hoped this season is that “The senior level is extremely competitive like they have a ton of club players on other teams… they’re more experienced.”