Saturday, September 6^th was AHS varsity volleyball’s first chance to show off their skills after adding five new varsity players and a new coach in the off-season. Those joining the team are sophomores Jessica Baker, Morgan Van Laar, Mackenzie Massey, captain Ally Peterson, and junior Alyssa Crain. Taking the reins as the head coach of the program is Whitney Williams, a young and determined coach who has her sights on winning state. Williams came from a school that won state twice while she was coaching and nothing is stopping her from pushing her new girls to strive for perfection on and off the court. If the way the varsity girls played at the Mariner Volleyball Tournament in Everett is any indicator of how the season may go, they have a real shot.

After defeating Meadowdale, Bremerton, and even a team from Post Falls, Idaho in the gold bracket of the tournament, the new, refined team made it into the championship game against Monroe. “It was a good, close fought game,” said returning varsity star and Senior Michaela Krogen. “We won one set but just barely lost the others.” She said “we still played hard and I’m proud of the way we worked and came together as a team.” Second place in the gold bracket of the tournament means the team has come a long way since last season when varsity struggled to win more than 2 games.

Senior captain Haley Gonzales said “the team played really well. It reflected what we could do and what we were capable of but it also shows what we needed to improve on.” The girls don’t doubt that they will improve and show tremendous success this season. Their motto “win the war, take one-four” shows that they’re willing to trek through their doubts, struggles, and weaknesses and come out on top in 2014. “From day one, Coach Williams has been saying we’re going to win state. And for the first couple practices, I didn’t believe it but since she’s been repeatedly saying it and telling us we have serious potential and raw talent, everyone is starting to live up to it. It’s awesome that our new coach who hasn’t even been around that long believes in us so much. It gives us a lot of confidence,” Krogen said.

Looking forward, Gonzales and Peterson both agreed this season’s biggest rivalry will be Marysville-Pilchuck. “We dropped down to 3A so now we play MP in the regular season instead of preseason when it didn’t count. We’re old rivals so it will be really fun to play them,” Haley said. MP and Arlington face off October 29 with varsity at 7:00 pm for senior night and freshmen and JV at 5:15.