Girls volleyball setting up a bounce-back season in McFall’s second year as coach

After a disappointing 2022 season, girls volleyball is looking to have a rebound year. The team finished last fall with a record of 10-26 (0-10 CSL), landing them last place in the conference.

“Most of the struggles that we faced last season were from inconsistency. There were multiple games last season where we were up in the first set and blew the lead, just to get blown out in the second set,” voiced girls volleyball coach Paris McFall. “We hit a bit of a rough spot in the middle of the season so we changed things up systematically. It was [both] good and bad, something we learned from going into this year.”

Despite the lack of success in the win column, McFall was pleased with the culture of the team during his first season as head coach of the Kits.

“A big success we had last year was the immediate buy-in of the culture, not only at the varsity level but also at the JV and freshman level. I credit my coaching staff for that. They did a great job of instilling the team principles into all teams,” said McFall.

Expected senior captain Margot Van Nice is taking it upon herself to reiterate those team principles and standards set in place by Jessica Sehgal, Maya Valentine and Claire Henthorn, last year’s team captains, as well as McFall.

“[As a captain], I will be a great team leader: make sure the team’s energy is up, help people when they’re down and be encouraging,” said Van Nice. “[Alike last year’s captain’s], I definitely want to give a lot of pep talks in the huddles.”

Since the team is only returning six varsity players, McFall had his team participate in a summer league at Loyola Academy. He believes the league will offer younger players in the program a chance to get caught up to varsity speed.

“The summer league is offering us a chance to get incoming juniors and seniors caught up to the varsity speed. The varsity level is a little bit faster, a little bit cleaner,” said McFall. “The nice thing is that we are returning at least one piece from each position; that will allow us to really hit the ground running as well as catching the younger girls up to speed.”