Desiree DeCoste
Beaver Staff
NDSS’ Golden Hawks girls’ volleyball team ended the school’s 22-year volleyball title drought on Wednesday, capturing the KASSAA championship in three sets over the La Salle Black Knights in the finals held at St. Lawrence College.
Ashlyn Baker, the team’s captain, lead the team by running the offense effectively while scoring 10 points. Lauren Reid had 11 points while Vienna Ballance-Hinch scored 10 and Sadie Lupton scored eight. Ashley Hudgins and Avery Sambramsky-Nichol both had clutch serving runs in the match to help the team to victory.
NDSS’s Physical Education, Science and Guidance Teacher and Athletic Director Todd Collard spoke with The Beaver about the championship win and the teams season.
“The groups started the season as skilled athletes, they worked extremely hard to earn the success that they had,” Collard stated. “The entire team also committed to becoming strong servers. The benefit for us on that is, it caused our opponent difficulty. In terms of gameplay that was the main cause for our success was we were better servers then everybody else.”
This was the first time one of NDSS’ junior volleyball teams has qualified for the volleyball final since KASSAA started in the late ‘90’s.
“It’s a huge accomplishment for the program and for the community,” said Collard. “We’re hoping it will result in an increase in interest in the sport. And we hope it’s the start of many successful seasons to come.”
The team went 10-1 in the regular season to finish as the top seed in the KASSAA standings and won several tournaments.
“The coaches and the athletes would like to thank everyone that supported us throughout the season,” Collard expressed. “We particularly want to thank the people who gave us amazing support at the championship game.”