Volleyball Sectionals

By: Willow Harrington

This year the CCHS varsity volleyball team has doubled their win record ending in a losing season of 10-18 compared to last year’s 5-20. With that, the team had much preparing to do for what is arguably the most important part of their season: sectionals. 

  The first round of Sectional 50 took place on October 14th, giving coach Andrea Berndt a week to prepare. Culver’s first match was against Oregon-Davis, and when it came to preparing, coach Berndt had many things in store. 

  “Sectional week is a lot of fun. We try and make it fun, competitive, up-beat, and intense. Obviously, we have to plan for Oregon-Davis first, so we are going to plan and scout things for Oregon-Davis,” said Andrea Berndt. “That week leading up is a lot of competitive games, we have some boys come in and play to simulate the other teams. We have sectional dinner, we just have a lot of unique fun stuff that’s a special time to be a part of sectionals.”

  Culver’s record for 2021 shows they had beaten every team in Sectional 50 besides Triton. They went 1-1 with Oregon-Davis, 1-0 with La Crosse, 1-0 with West Central, 0-2 with Triton, and 3-0 with Argos. 

  “I feel hopeful and confident, sectionals is a time where we’re all zero-zero. It’s like a new season for everybody. Yes, we’ve beat Oregon-Davis, but we’ve also lost to them in a tournament,” said Andrea Berndt. “I think we have a pretty good shot, providing that everybody shows up and we’re on our best game. Anything can happen during sectionals, it’s a new season.”

  In the end, Culver played a hard game against Oregon-Davis going into five sets. Oregon-Davis won the first two sets with scores 15-25 and 13-25. Culver won the next two sets 25-22 and 25-21. Both teams were ready to battle for the win going into the fifth set. When it came down to it, Oregon-Davis took away the victory with a final score of 13-15. 

  “Next season I am hoping we have a winning season. I would also hope for us to advance in sectionals. I know we have struggled in the past. If we make it into regionals, I don’t know how far we will get because we haven’t made it that far in a long time, if ever so it’s different competition and new experiences if we make it,” said freshman Laynie Haws. “I also would love to see more team bonding throughout the team, and just connecting really well on and off the court. I think it will be a really good season despite us losing two great seniors.”