On Oct. 9, the girls’ varsity volleyball team played against State College. The game started around 7 p.m.
“We prepared for this game by having the coaches do some scouting work, and the day before, in our practice, we reviewed that with the team. We also worked on basic skills, so we were ready to go,” varsity coach John Saboe said.
Before the game started, senior Aunye Counsman was given the 1000 digs award.
“I was completely surprised, I had no clue that I was close to 1000 digs. I was completely shocked and really proud of myself. But I was just in shock because everyone kept it a secret from me,” Counsman said.
The starters for the game were Counsman, juniors Sami Page, Ava Steinbugl and Ellaina Saylor, and sophomores Ella Albright, Megan Kelly and Annalyse Yost.
“It definitely started in junior high, they focused on keeping us more on the athletic side rather than skill wise. Once we made it to the high school, we could focus on skills, and I did spend a lot of practices staying later working with just the coaches on like my passing my hitting. That’s what got me to starting varsity about halfway through my freshman year,” Counsman said
The game started with Altoona getting the first point. Later in the game, they were down by seven points. However, the girls worked hard to build their way back up. Altoona won the first game with a score of 26-24.
“We were feeling very confident with ourselves. And it was just upbeat, we just beat State College,” Albright said.
During the second game, Altoona slowly built up a lead and won with a score of 25-18.
“It was a relief, but you know, you’re not even close to done because for varsity, we can go to five sets if we go back and forth winning games. So, it was a relief because usually we lose to State College. And so it’s always in everyone’s head. It’s definitely a relief we can beat them, but we have a lot more work to do to finish the game,” Counsman said
Heading into the third game, the varsity girls knew they only needed to beat State College one more time in order to win.
“We were all thinking we need to win this game. If we don’t pull through, we’re going to have to get to four and everyone hates going to four. So it was a need to push us and push them,” Albright said.
The third game started with State College scoring the first point, the start of the game was a close back-and-forth battle until State College got a nine-point lead. Altoona did their best to build their way back but lost, 21-25.
“State College is a good team, you can’t take anything away from them. No good team is going to go down without a battle and State College is like that. They put us in a couple of difficult situations in that game. We didn’t respond the way that we needed to to get a three game sweep,” Saboe said.
The fourth and final game started with State College getting ahead by six points. However, the girls made their way out of the deficit until the score was tied 17-17.
“It was definitely stressful, but at the same time having as much experience as I did. I had to be a person that kept the younger girls in check and kept them from getting nervous and making mistakes. So I think it was pretty focused,” Counsman said.
Soon, State College was winning by three points. Altoona answered back by tying the score at 23. Then the girls got the next point, but State College answered back by tying the score at 24. Altoona won the game with a final score of 26-24.
“We were ecstatic. It is always good to get a win over your rivals. So far, this season when we played them the first time, we lost to them in five and the score was 15-12. So we knew we were close and that we had them at home the second time, so we pushed them to the limit and beat them in four,” Saboe said.
