On Thursday, September 25th Westside varsity volleyball faced off against Bryan High in a home match.

Throughout the whole match, Westside swept with the first set finishing 25 -11, the second set 25 -10 and the third set 25-8, claiming the win for Westside. After the match, Bowers felt there were things that needed to be said.

“Yeah we won, it’s a W, but these are the times where we were supposed to work on things that we’re not good at. We had a ton of servings errors. I had to sit people out because they were serving balls into the net or out of bounds,” Bowers said. 

Coach Bowers said she believes her team slacked off from beginning to end of the match.

“Even talking with the girls after the match, [they weren’t] mentally disciplined. they felt they could have given a lot more. The goal when you play these types of teams is [that] you know you’re gonna get scrappy ball, they’re not gonna give up. So that means you know to be that much more focused, much more disciplined,” Bowers said. 

The win to Bowers is nice, but the thing she wants her team to work for is not only the win, but self improvement. She also sees games like these as a chance for her older players to be an example unto her younger players.

“I asked the girls, you need to ask yourselves, ‘Did you get better tonight?’. You could see some of their heads [shaking] no,” Bowers said. “The leaders need to hold themselves accountable but also foster that into the younger players.” 

The feeling of winning and not improving is mutual for setter McKenna Nemecek.

“Tonight, I feel like we won pretty good. But I feel like we didn’t show our full potential. That there wasn’t much energy. When you play a team like [Bryan] you need to respect your opponent by beating them as bad as you can. It was a good win but we could’ve played a little better,” Nemecek said.

Nemecek sees the fault in their game but looks to change that in their next match against Omaha South. 

“We just need to come in and not play down to their level, respect your opponent, beat them as bad as you can, keep them under ten, get our serves in, and just put the ball away,” Nemecek said.

With the next match against Omaha South being on October 1st, Bowers sees this as crucial time to reexamine where the team stands technically and to prepare for Metros and Districts.

“In the next couple of days, we’re gonna work on transitioning especially to our middles, work on our slides and connection with our setter McKenna,” Bowers said. “Whenever we can get into the gym, it’s going to be crucial for us now. Especially towards the end of the season when we’re going into metro and going into districts.”

Westside varsity volleyball play away against Omaha South on October 1st.