By: Grace Blumer-LaMotte

Highland Park High School went against Central High School in volleyball on Thursday, October 6th, 2022. C-Squad and Junior Varsity played at 5:30 pm, while Varsity played at 7 pm.

All 3 teams of Highland won against Central that night. 

Varsity formally goes to 5 sets, if needed. The first team to win 3 sets wins the match. Highland lost the first set but came back strong and won the next three sets, leading them to victory. Almost all of the sets were very close, only having a few point differences.

Varsity consists of these players: Grace Blumer-LaMotte (Senior), Grace Adrian (Senior), Sunshine Vang (Senior), Bella Kottke (Senior), Ayana Bougie (Senior), Leila Hagedorn (Senior), Kate Reubish (Junior), Alyssa Ramos (Junior), Molly Hanley (Junior), Ella Johnson (Junior), Mary Kock (Sophomore), Ella Sutherland (Sophomore). 

Bella Kottke, the middle hitter of HPSH, had a huge thirteen kills. Mary Koch, another middle hitter of HPSH, had hit .500. Molly Hanley, an outside hitter, led the team with four aces, with three in a row in the third set. Ayana Bougie, the setter, had seventeen digs. Molly Hanley and Alyssa Ramos, the HPSH libero, both had fourteen digs each. Kate Reubish, a hitter of HPSH, and Ayana Bougie had zero service errors. Bella Kottke also led with five big blocks at the net.

The whole team served with amazing accuracy of 92.3%. The team also had a hitting percentage of .210. 

The student section was growing as the game went on. There were a good hundred students in the bleachers. The theme for the game was “White Out” due to the school colors of Highland Park Senior High, red and white. The student section shouted and cheered for all of the small victories during the game such as kills, digs, blocks, etc. They would chant various different things like “We Are The Scotties, The Mighty Mighty Scotties”, “Scoreboard”, and just overall cheering for certain players. Once the Scots won against Central the student section swarmed the court and cheered on the whole team. 

On Thursday, October 13th, 2022, Highland Park Senior High took on Central High school at Central for a second time. C-Squad and Junior Varsity played at 5:30 pm, while Varsity played at 7 pm.

All 3 teams of Highland won against Central that night. 

Varsity formally goes to 5 sets, if needed. The first team to win 3 sets wins the match. Highland lost the first set (21-25) but came back strong and won the second set (25-18). It went on for another 3 sets, Central winning the fourth set (21-25) and Highland winning the final set (15-12), leading them to victory. Almost all of the sets were very close, only having a few point differences.

Varsity consists of these players: Grace Blumer-LaMotte (Senior, #10), Grace Adrian (Senior #12), Sunshine Vang (Senior #3)), Bella Kottke (Senior #18), Ayana Bougie (Senior #13), Leila Hagedorn (Senior #27), Kate Reubish (Junior #11), Alyssa Ramos (Junior #2), Molly Hanley (Junior #9), Ella Johnson (Junior 1), Mary Koch (Sophomore #14), Ella Sutherland (Sophomore #6). Varsity is coached by Sonje Odegard (Head).

Kill Stats: Bella Kottke, the middle hitter, led the team with 22 kills. Kills are when the ball hits the ground without anyone touching it. She also had a hitting percentage of .326. Kate Reubish, a right-side hitter, had 15 kills. Mary Koch, another middle hitter, had 11 kills. Molly Hanley, a right-side hitter, had 7 kills. Ayana Bougie-Martinez, the setter, had 5 kills. Finally, Ella Sutherland, an outside, had 3 kills. Overall the team had 63 total kills.

Serve Stats: Alyssa Ramos, the libero, had 8 serve aces. Serve aces are when either none of the players touch the ball when it goes over the net, or if someone shanks the ball off of first contact. Ayana Bougie-Martinez had 4 serve aces. Molly Hanley had 3 serve aces. Sunshine Vang, a defensive specialist, had 2 serve aces. Overall the team had 18 serve-aces.

Defense Stats: Alyssa Ramos led the team with 22 digs. Bella Kottke had 18 digs. Molly Hanley had 12 digs. Ayana Bougie-Martinez had 8 digs. Sunshine Vang had 7 digs. Kate Reubish had 4 digs. Ella Sutherland and Mary Koch both had 2 digs. Overall the team had 75 digs total.

Overall, volleyball team dominated Central this year.