“Our spandex is tight, but our game is tighter,” said sophomore Megan Szatkiewicz. Freedom’s volleyball program has vastly improved over the past three years, which is when they got their head coach, Brittany Morrow. Coach Morrow i s a dedicated coach who played Beaver Volleyball during her high school career and throughout college. She coaches the girls hard, and has made them a better team. “In the past three years, I’ve seen the girls improve significantly and they are starting to build a program in Freedom which will get better every year,” Morrow said. Also this year, the team has a new assistant coach. Her name is Leah Carnahan, and she is “stoked about helping coach the team.” She plans on using her volleyball knowledge to help improve the team’s skills, but she claims that she is mostly there for moral support. There are only 16 girls on the team this year. Most of the girls on the team have some sort of injury at this time, but they have decided to play through it. All of the girls are dedicated to the sport fully, because they use up most of their time on it. Just the year before there were about 23 girls, and the ones who have stayed use most of their time on the volleyball court. Senior Kellie Mercier said, “We are a hard-working team, and we’ve gotten a lot of support from the other students.” The team has a loyal group of spectators, including parents, friends, and fellow students. What the spectators don’t see is the practice that the volleyball team goes through. The team hones their skills by doing serve receive, serving, sprawling drills, tons of running, and much more. The team has practice or a game every weekday, and usually an all-day tournament every Saturday. “I think we’ve improved our performance from years past, and we will continue to work hard to get better,” said Szatkiewicz. “We try our hardest each game, and we play our hearts out. Even if we don’t win, that should count for something .” Like every year, the team has played the hardest teams in their section first. They lost their first three matches, but plan to win a lot of the upcoming ones. Carolyn Jenny, a junior, had a lot of inspirational words to share about the relationship between the teammates. “We aren’t just a team. As time goes on, we transfer into a family. Volleyball isn’t just a game, it’s our lives. With every pass, set, hit, cheer, and mistake…we only get closer,” she said. “No matter if we like it or not, we’re all a family. We have each other’s backs on and off the court, and we will for the rest of our days.”