Freshman Volleyball where DeFeats will soon be Feats!

Canyon Lake’s Freshman Volleyball team is better than their record.

Freshman Cameron Berger and Sydney Riebschlaeger

Most 3A schools will have three teams in many of their sports.

The Junior Varsity, Varsity, and Freshman teams will be formed as each team prepares for their season. When this happens you will have most varsity teams acquiring all of the best players for that particular team.

So a Varsity team will have predominately Seniors and then a good number of Juniors. The football team will many times have two to three Sophomores that make a varsity team.

This year CL’s Volleyball Varsity team has added a Freshman (Halley McKnight) to their roster which is a rare feat.

Junior Varsity will many times have Juniors, Sophomores, and a Freshman will have their best chance to move into this role.

You will always have a Freshman team being just freshman. They will never have the luxury of adding any other grades to that team.

Teams would never move down players for this group of athletes mainly because their name is based on being freshman.

This year, Canyon Lake has had four freshman players that graduated up immediately at the start of this campaign onto the other two clubs.

Three freshman girls are on this year’s JV team (Hannah Wunderlich, Bailey Drum, and Alexis Robinson) and as mentioned earlier the Varsity is carrying a freshman on that squad.

Now think about those losses to this year’s freshman team and you have a group of girls that have had to start from scratch in finding their groove. These girls have played together for most of their short careers and now all of a sudden a whole different lineup has been formed.

“We are still getting used to each other as a team,” Freshman Cameron Berger said. “We have lots of playing time and we are competing for spots all the time.”

Girls that would of been substitutes are now starting and teammates that have been buried on the depth chart for a portion of games will now be first substitutes and must be ready for action at a much earlier time in any given game.

“Because we had players that went up to JV, then they are not here and it is giving us more experience and playing time,” Fellow Freshman Sydney Riebschlaeger added. “It will make us stronger because we are competing for those positions.”

What does this mean for a team that has won just a handful of game this season? Canyon Lake was beaten by Wimberley’s Freshman team and you have to wonder if any of those Texan freshman girls had been moved up in that farm club called Wimberley Volleyball.

You would have to guess that would be really rare for any school to have that as an option unless that freshman is the second coming of Destini Hooker (Texas Volleyball player from San Antonio that played in the Olympics this Summer).

Now all you have to do is insert those four freshman girls from Canyon Lake on this year’s freshman team and you would be justified in thinking this team would be winning their share of matches this year.

“They (freshman) are used to having those four being game leaders,” Freshman Head Coach Katie McWhorter said. “Who will be our court leader tonight?”

“They are not as used to playing as much and this will make them better for their future.”

When you go through a whole season playing girls that are now getting a lot more experience than would of happened if none of those four girls going to the JV and Varsity teams, then those results might not be seen this season, but later these night will be great building blocks.

Yes, you have some losses, but in the long run, this team of freshman girls will be reunited again as they go through high school. What type of team will this group of girls be like when that year arises.

Back when they were freshman, many of these girls will be able to use the experiences of playing through rough spots in games that would never of happened under any other circumstances.

“We are working on their rhythm,” Coach McWhorter continued. “We have had a lot of injuries and sickness and stuff, but we took Canyon High School…a 5A school…to a 30-28 game in their tournament earlier this year and we haven’t been able to regroup, but we know they can compete and play to win.”

The scars that they take this year will be well healed next year. Then these building blocks will lead to a break out for these girls. That should pave a road that can be a highway to many playoff cities in the future.

These freshman will be able to think back on those hard losses and know that it was worth it.

“We have accomplished a lot this season,” Coach McWhorter closed. “In order to continue their Volleyball career in high school, these girls are competing for that spot next year…I have seen a lot of improvement for a lot of players.”

You have three freshman playing on a Junior Varsity and getting valuable playing time as well as the freshman on this years Varsity.

Those times in battle will only sharpen their skills and their maturation will hopefully exceed their counterparts that just beat them in Wimberley last Tuesday night.

“We have potential and skill,” Berger served up. “We lack consistency but we all pull together as a team.”

“It goes game to game,” Riebschlaeger gave an assist. “I can’t think of a reason why we can’t improve and constantly moving to be a leader.”

Yeah, Wimberley won, but you add three Junior Varsity and one Varsity player to this team tonight and that loss could easily be a win.

But, you would not have this group of freshman girls learning valuable lessons each night and that will translate later in their careers when it will really count. Count on it.

Even though there will be a time when, those defeats will be turned into feats without the de.

Canyon Lake Freshman for 2012.

Jaclyn Bendele
Tiare Kacir
Kirsten Jones
Sydney Riebschlaeger
Riley Bigler
Kaylee Acosta
Cameron Berger
Caitlin Mabry
Sarah Schneider
Kadye Ploch
Halley McKnight
Hannah Wunderlich
Bailey Drum
Alexis Robinson