Some people may think that seniors are the leaders of high school, especially when it comes to athletics. But for the SHS girls volleyball team, adjusting to a new set of leaders and a new atmosphere is something they have had to face.

The SHS girls volleyball team is spending their 2016 season without any seniors on the team. Instead of senior captains, juniors Kierston Whitlock, Maggie Davis, and Tiana Wright lead the team.
“I feel like we have had seniors (in the past) that haven’t really shown leadership,” Davis said. “Tiana (Wright), Kierston (Whitlock), and I have experience in leading so it’s no big deal. We just don’t have older girls to look up to.”

Although the result of no seniors means less people on the team, different leadership and of course no senior night, the positives outweigh the negatives according to the team.
The players and coaches think the biggest benefit is that they won’t be losing anyone next year. The coaches are hoping everyone will keep improving into the next season, so there are no big key positions that they would need to replace.

“Whatever we accomplish this year hopefully will be that much easier next year, because we should have everyone back that is more experienced,“ varsity head coach Lyndsey Weller said.
Another positive thing is the amount of young players on the court, according to the coaches. Since there are no seniors, there are freshman playing varsity. That means the more playing time and experience the underclassman get, the better they will be in the future.

There are some benefits from not having seniors, but overall the team and coaches don’t really think it is that much of a change. It is mostly about the slight change in leadership, but Weller thinks they are meeting her expectations.

“There was a little bit of a learning curve in the beginning,” Weller said,” but once they figured it out and realized what that role entailed, I think they have done a really good job, as good as the seniors would do.”

As Whitlock, Davis and Wright continue to lead the rest of this season, they will all be back to lead the team as seniors next season as well.
The girls think the future’s looking good for them. Not only for next season, but for the rest of the 2016 season as well. They still have three season games against Bloomington North and Greenwood at home and at Lawrence Central. Followed by Conference Indiana and sectionals which they hope leads into Regionals, Semi State and State.

A big tournament coming up for the girls volleyball team is Conference Indiana on Oct. 18 at Franklin Central. The schools in the conference include Franklin Central, Perry Meridian, Terre Haute North and South, Bloomington North and South and Columbus North.

So far this season they have played and lost to 5/7 of these schools. They lost to Franklin Central 3-0, Terre Haute North 2-0, Bloomington South 3-0, Columbus North 3-0 and Perry Meridian 3-0. The girls are taking these losses and using them to get better.

“We work on trying to get the girls to believe they can win,” assistant coach Chelsea Brothers said.