As a grade 12 student, our days are usually booked solid, filled by important in-class lessons, worksheets, and loads of studying awaiting our return home. But throughout that busy schedule, there has been one constant that has kept me excited to show up each day- after school sports. As a student athlete, the school day has never felt like my main purpose, more of a task leading up to the main event- practices and games. The sports were what mattered. Now, for any student athlete you know just how painful it can be to have to wait long periods of time for your favorite sport’s season to arrive. For me, the volleyball team has always been a long awaited team to try out for- especially this past year being so eager to play sports during my senior year. Well as eager as I was, I had to wait. But by the time the first tryout date rolled around in early December (2023), I was ready to hop on the court. By the end of the week, after the second tryout had been held, the final roster was posted and I knew it would be a great season.
With many hard-worked practices, our supportive coaches, and many dedicated players, the 2023-2024 Senior Girls Volleyball team pushed hard and earned our spot in the first round of playoff games which took place at Mac. With a winning streak of 7 out of 8 regular season games, we had a good shot at making it past the quarter-finals to the semi-final round. The ¼ final was against a very strong team, a good match for us- Woodroffe High School who came from the west-end of Ottawa. With confidence from both sides riding high and energy up, the game began. The game was a 5 set match and was unfortunately lost during that fifth and final set. With this, we were eliminated from the playoffs, ultimately ending our season. 
Even though this wasn't the outcome we had hoped for going into the game, the senior team gained a lot of valuable experience throughout our season that our grade 11 girls will carry into their next year, and we continued the legacy of having a positive and supportive team of players. For our senior players (Calli, Meredith, Navah, Jasmine, and myself), this game could have been our last ever organized game of volleyball. While this is sad to think about, it is nice to know that we ended with great teammates and a team we were proud to be a part of- So “Shout-out to our senior players” as Mrs. Connolly said during the off recording time of our interview.

 

2023-2024 Senior Girls Volleyball roster:
Calli Dorey (12), Setter #12 
Ella Townsend (12), Middle Block #11 
Meredith Brown (12), Middle Block #10
Navah Boucher (12), Hitter #21
Jasmine Odawa (12), Hitter #9
Dyvine Dorval (11), Hitter #22
Rayan Mcharnud (11), Middle Block #16
Dorcas Atmango (11), Hitter #20
Isabella Girolami (11), Setter #15
Elham Kadir (11), Setter #7
Yesua Korka-Waadah (11), Hitter #3
Alexia Ndombe (11), Middle block #23
Chloe Longang Fotso (11), Hitter #8

​