Starting off the year with a 1-2 conference record, the South women’s volleyball team is looking to build on successful moments in the early stages of its season.

“Our team has tremendous chemistry,” head coach Katie Hoover said. “Everybody is working hard whenever we get together as a team.”

According to Hoover, the team started the season by playing a series of tough teams.

They currently have an 8-10 overall record. According to Hoover, the record has been improving since the start of the season. She attributes the losses mainly to the inconsistency of the team throughout the matches.

“We tend to fall apart towards the middle of the games,” senior captain Katie Dwyer explained. “We just need to stay consistent and stay strong.”

As the season was still getting started, the team faced New Trier and finished with a loss in the third set. Hoover believes that although the game didn’t end in a win, it was still a positive match for the team.

“[It] was the best that we’ve played so far,” Hoover said. “The fact that we won our first game and played so close with them in game two demonstrates how far we’ve come. We were ready right off the bat, we served aggressively and had a lot of leadership on the floor.”

According to Hoover, New Trier’s powerful offense and consistent aggressive serving throughout the match were two major factors that frustrated South. One way to combat this going forward will be to get the middles more involved in the offense.

“Our middle hitters are really good, they can definitely get us a lot of points,” Dwyer echoed.

Hoover believes that their middles are key contributors to the team and wants to make them a bigger part of their offense.

“We need to get our middle attackers more involved,” Hoover said. “We need get them more opportunities to swing.”

According to Dwyer, although the middles are a key part of the points they score, they’re not the only part. Other key players include captains Teigan Flaws, Dwyer, and Rachel Tiedmann; outside hitters Meghan Guinane and Kaitlin Sontag; defensive specialist Kiva Talty; and Libero Emily Mitchell.

“Our team is really close this year,” Dwyer said. “We’re really great friends.”

In Hoover’s opinion, the team’s communication has been just what she hoped for. While the communication is great, she feels the team needs to be more consistent.

“We need to get the consistency piece along with the aggression piece,” Hoover said. “Then we’ll be unstoppable.”