Q: When did you first start playing volleyball?
A: The first time I ever touched a volleyball was freshman year, going into high school. I moved to Rocklin and then went to Whitney and thought I [needed] to try something new. So I thought, Volleyball sounds fun, so I tried out for the team and made it.
Q: What did you believe were your most important responsibilities as the team captain?
A: Especially as a senior and a team captain again this year, it’s important to lead the younger girls, teach them things they don’t know, encourage them to take every opportunity, and just enjoy the time because it goes by really fast. [I try to] give them some sense of direction, and help mentor them to become good, bright, young girls.
Q: How many years were you captain?
A: I was captain freshman, sophomore and then senior year, so I’ve only not been a captain junior year.
Q: How did you build trust with your teammates?
A: I think it’s important to build connections with them on the court and off the court so with a lot of the girls I’m with now, or from freshman year, I just built a relationship with them, whether that was outside of school, in school, in my classes. I think it’s just so important to know who they are truly past volleyball.
Q: What is an important lesson you’ve learned from a past team experience you brought to the court this year?
A: Probably just to take every ball, every moment not for granted, because sometimes you may not get playing time, sometimes you will, sometimes you’ll have a teammate step in for you, and I think no matter what happens, you should need to learn from it, and be able to grow.
Q: How did you handle the pressure of being captain?
A: As a leader, you just have to know no matter what, you always have an eye on you. So you always need to be smiling, encouraging your team, trying your hardest, showing up on time, being the last one to leave, helping clean up; you just need to lead by example. I really enjoy doing that, and I think I do that on a lot of aspects of my life. So I think that, pushing the team, or when we’re down, it’s always important just to lead by example, have a good attitude, and try your hardest.
Q: How did you show unity when there are so many team members with different skills, experiences or personalities?
A: I think you can build off of other people’s techniques. You should never be jealous of another team player because you can learn something from them that maybe you didn’t know, and you guys can help build each other up and grow together. It creates a sense of trust that is hard to experience outside of a team. So it’s really something special.
Q: What was your vision or hope with this team as captain toward the end of the season?
A: I hope that they had a good season. I know we didn’t win a ton of games but I hope that, since I’m leaving next year and I was the only senior this year, they’re able to have a really good direction in the following years. We have so many talented, young girls that will be amazing when they’re seniors and when they’re team captains, so I hope I was able to pass on leadership, or experience, or any help that I could’ve gotten them in life.
Q: Walk us through your volleyball journey; what is your favorite memory from being on the team for all 4 years?
A: Freshman year, my favorite memory was probably the first day of tryouts, because I had no idea what I was doing, and then Kaitlyn Lou came in as a sophomore, and she just smiled at me, let me pass the ball with her, and taught me everything I know. That’s my favorite memory ever, probably because it’s brought me to where I am now and taught me about leadership and caring for others.
BY MAHIMA BHANDARKAR & AMY NGUYEN
