One-third of Chelsea’s JV volleyball team is freshman, the likelihood of which is normally low. This year, however, there was an unusually large amount of freshmen trying out. With so many on the team, it leads many to wonder how much playing time each will get.
“I’m definitely not a starter, but I get that because there are a lot of upperclassmen that are definitely better than me,” freshman Ella Gietzen said. “I’m working up to playing more [later in the season].”
When you’re on JV, the skill level is higher than the freshman level, giving the freshman more room to improve. This lets them look up to the upperclassmen on their team because they’re older and more experienced with how this season works and runs successfully.
“I feel like all of my skills have improved all around with being on JV because I feel like they can show me more skills because they are older,” Gietzen said.
When you are playing different positions, you get different amounts of playing time. For example, the positions of middles swap in and out for liberos in the back row, outsides swap out for the middle back and right sides swap out for the left back. There are only six people allowed on the court at a time, so this rotation improves efficiency with playing time.
“I would say I get a pretty good amount of time when I play on JV because I am the Libero,” freshman Ava Skrypec said.
A team is a family, even if sometimes you might not feel like the closest friends, you still have to be around them and be a unified team. In addition to not causing issues on the court while keeping your team composed and calm, it’s also important to be excited about one another’s accomplishments.
“I think our team gets along really well. We have become good friends,” Skrypec said. “We talk about personal stuff that I would talk about with my [close] friends.”
You have to work together with your teammates no matter what is going on with them outside of volleyball.
“We go through things together,” Skrypec said. “We get in trouble together and we accomplish things together.”
