The new school year means one thing for this particular group of girls: volleyball season. Starting off the year, the girls faced an unusual dilemma, they didn’t have a coach. The girls have been practicing since August 11; however, they didn’t even know their starters until right before yesterday’s game. This unique situation is making for a special season.

When tryouts started on August 8, everything was going according to plan except for one crucial thing: there was no freshman coach.  With matches around the corner, the girls were scrambling for a coach. While the search was pending, the freshman girls were practicing along the JV team and coach Payton Milo. With her JV load, she couldn’t possibly take on another team so the coaches and parents were looking for someone, anyone, to step up.

That moment occurred by the mom of JV player Aubrey Gallagher. Coach Gallagher volunteered to help out until they could find a permanent coach, and so far, she has done a wonderful job. Taking over the team only the day of their first matches and leading them to an impressive 1 and 1 record at the Battle of the Hills, she is quickly whipping them into shape.

Going into the first match of their ranger volleyball careers, nerves were high. Coming out of the gate, the girls struggled. Georgia Miller spoke about the rough set saying, “We had poor communication and we hadn’t really played much together yet so we were figuring that stuff out.” After losing the first set, The Rangers thundered back in the second set thanks to Georgia’s serving streak of over nine serves in a row. Unfortunately, they fell in a close tiebreaker 12-15.

After losing the match against FHE, the girls turned it around to beat FHN in a tiebreaker 15-9. Clare Knoester commented on the turn around saying, “We figured out how each other played and what we were best at to win against FHN.” The Rangers exceeded all expectations going 1 and 1 while meeting their coach the day of the match.

At the end of the day, they fought through struggles of being a brand new team and meeting their coach that day to go 1 and 1 shattering expectations. After the close loss against FHE, team stars like Clare Knoester, Georgia Miller and Malia McKenzie stepped up  and led the team to a final victory against FHN showing the true greatness of this star-studded group.