One serve at a time approach for Gators’ senior girls volleyball

Justin Seward
Commentator/Courier

The Senator Gershaw School Gators senior girls volleyball team are a young squad this year.
But that does not mean anything to the ladies as they want to take the season one step at a time to not only get better in their play, but ultimately peak before the team steps on the court as 1A Provincial hosts in November.
“I feel we’ve worked well as a team,” said Kiara Porteous, team captain and libero.
“Half of our team has played together for a few years. Half our team are new comers and I feel we’ve jived really well. Our first tournament (at Lethbridge College) went over really well. I think the season is going to be a really good one.”
Porteous says as captain she always encourages her teammates to keep going if the play didn’t go their way and just to shake it off by making a good play the next time.
Expectations are simple heading into this volleyball season.
“As a group we want to strive to put our best always out there,” said Porteous.
“You always want to be at 110 per cent as any sport. And just being the seniors, you always want to work hard.”
A roster that houses two Grade 12s and four Grade 11s are expected to take a leadership as the rest of the team is Grade 10s.
“We have to cover a lot,” said Porteous.
“Since we don’t have as many players who can block. We just have to rotate our defense so we’re always just covering behind the very few blocks we have.”
Taryn Smith says good passing and positioning is important.
“We are working on hitting,” said Smith.
“Our hitting is going really well too.”
As provincial hosts, the girls just want to do their best as the season goes along.
“We want to do well in provincials,” said Smith.
“I’ve already seen a lot of improvement in our team so far this year and we’ve only had one tournament. I’m really excited for what’s to come.”
Porteous says preparation for the provincial stage will start with the tournaments and using those events as a way to improve on court, which she will help the Gators do well at the end of the year.
“I think it’ll be really good for our school and the community,” she said.
“We hosted it a few years ago when it really brought in a lot. You can see the community really supported all of us and it helped the teams.”