Volleyball Girls Conquer Nebraska City

Waverly Vikings varsity volleyball team came home with a hard-earned win against Nebraska City on the night of Tuesday, Sept. 22.

The game against Nebraska City was intense. Nobody knew who would win the first set because the score was so close the entire first set. Waverly ladies were almost to the spots they needed to be at for specific plays, but they didn’t fully get there. In the second set, Waverly stepped up and started playing as a team. They figured out what they needed to do to make the plays work and what they needed to do to win.

“I am happy we got out of there with a win. We did not play our best volleyball,” Head coach Terri Neujahr said. “Nebraska City is a team that’s very talented. They have pretty much everybody back from last year, so I knew they would be a formidable opponent. We got better as the match went on, and we started adjusting and doing some things a little bit better, which I was very pleased with.”

All of the matches were very close and kept families on the edge of their seats. The first set was won by Waverly 27-25.

They knew they needed to exceed their top goal.

“Our biggest expectation is to go in knowing that anything can happen and just playing our game,” sophomore Eran Rose-Gronewold said.

The girls started getting more comfortable in the second and third set, which both ended with Waverly winning 25-20. Even though they started winning, they couldn’t lay off because Nebraska City would take the opportunity to comeback.

When they pulled together and started playing as a team, the score wasn’t as close as the previous set.

“There wasn’t really one player that dominated the match. I think it was very much a team effort. I think our middles were very much more involved and we’ve been working a lot on that.” Neujahr said.

Although they came home with a win, there are still things that need worked on before their Aurora tournament on Saturday.

“If there was one thing we need to work on, it would be team defense and then just everybody needs to do some things better individually. Just make some small adjustments and that makes a huge difference for the whole team when we do that,” Neujahr said.

Although they came home with the win, the girls will work hard to keep on improving. Their first opponent for the tournament is against Beatrice.