Rising as One

WESTBOROUGH – The atmosphere in the Westborough High School gymnasium Monday afternoon was light and loose. The girls’ varsity volleyball team were laughing and joking as they warmed up prior to their Monday practice.

The team should feel good about themselves this season. The team sports an undefeated 15-0 record, including a dominant victory in the first round of the postseason against then 16-1 Doherty Memorial on Thursday, Oct. 21. Westborough entered the CMADA Division 1 tournament as the top ranked squad and left no doubt they are the team to beat after easing past the Highlanders in three straight games (25-8, 25-9, 25-13). The Rangers even finished first in the Midland Wachusett Conference (A) with a perfect 10-0 record.

But don’t let that light-hearted air of their warmup be mistaken for the slightest bit of overconfidence or a lack of passion, focus, and determination to keep winning. “I think we just focus on getting better every single day,” said senior captain Makenna Thrush during the warmup. “We don’t settle. We focus on taking it one day at a time and making sure each practice is as intentional as possible to make sure we’re getting better every day.”

Senior captain Grace Burns echoed those same sentiments. “We put an emphasis on working harder after a win,” she said. “So, we will work harder in practice today. But specifically, after a win to make sure that we’re never settling, that we’re always getting better in each skill or even just in any way possible on the court.”

The Rangers are talented, but it is their strong-minded will to maintain a high standard of play and a strong work ethic at practice that has catapulted this team to be the best up to this point in the season. Their winning culture is set by the coaching staff and reinforced by the senior leadership.

Following warmups, Coach Roger Anderson spoke to all 15 members of the team as they quietly surrounded him to listen intently.

“First of all, how are you?” he asked.

The team answered in unison, “Good!”

Then he asked, “on a scale of one to ten, how present are you, right here, right now.” Some girls held up eight fingers, while others held up nine or seven. “I’m like a nine,” he continued. “I’ve been waiting all day just to be here. That’s good and if it’s a struggle, I appreciate the honesty and let’s go to work, okay? Our goals for today are to continue to grow and learn and continue to get better every day. We have to learn today. I want to maintain our strengths.”

As Westborough started their practice, Anderson’s focus before their semifinals round match against Nashoba tonight at 6 p.m. was to spend a significant time on improving their perimeter defense. “That is what we’re going to start the match with tomorrow,” Anderson told his team. Based on scouting reports compiled by the coaching staff, their approach to mastering the perimeter defense “sets us up to have pretty good success defending Nashoba … We need to be able to do it if a team demands it from us. We have got to change and shift and you guys have been very good at that all year.”

Following practice, senior Christine Li said she was happy with the work of her teammates during practice leading into the semifinals. “I definitely think we’ll be ready for tomorrow,” she said. “There’s gonna be hiccups, like in any game. I think we’re all going to have to adapt in some way. But everyone is ready to learn and everyone is willing to change positions at any time. There’s been times where we’ll switch in the middle of the game and we need to be prepared for it. I think we’ll be ready.”

Such preparation helps the Rangers persevere through adversity in games and gives them the belief they can overcome any situation that doesn’t go their way. A good example of this came in the third game of the Doherty match. Westborough seemed to have control of the game with a 14-8 lead, but the Highlanders pushed back and scored quickly to pull within three points at 14-11. That’s when Anderson called a much-needed timeout to address this big moment in the game.

“I just wanted them to get back to playing our brand of volleyball,” he said about taking a timeout at that point in the game. “We needed to get back to playing the way that we are capable of and just moving on quickly from mistakes and focusing on what we can control. We needed to get back to working really, really hard on every single point, communicating at a very high level and being brave in big moments.”

Burns said during that timeout, “coach told us to play our game. Play how we know how to play. Play for each other. Really making sure that you’re still having your teammates backs, even when maybe the other team is going on a run. Just play and keep making sure that we’re playing our game.”

Thrush said that particular timeout was also a reminder to get back to playing together and playing with joyfulness. “When times like those get a little bit tense and stressful, all we focus on is having joy in-between each and every point,” she said. “So, even if we lose the point, we make sure we’re coming together and we’re saying good job and being happy together because that’s really what it’s all about, just being happy with your teammates and having fun playing the sport that we all love.”

The pep talk and their positive attitude worked because the Rangers closed out the game on an 11-2 run. This approach is substantial, because it has brought the team close as a unit. Senior Melissa Kuang said it only works when they stick together as a team and avoid the egos that tend to be destructive on other teams. “I think that we encourage each other,” she said. “Especially during difficult times and when we’re trying new things … Of course, there’s a struggle to get to our goal sometimes, but we embrace it together. We don’t let anyone feel left behind or feel lost in themselves when they are struggling. We just make sure that they know they’re supported. Even if they’re making a ton of mistakes. We let them know we are proud of them.”

Togetherness is part of the team’s long standing culture and DNA. “Ever since I was a freshman,” Thrush said. “There’s always been a huge emphasis on making sure that it’s not varsity, JV and JV-1. It’s the volleyball program. No, it’s not seniors, juniors, and sophomores. It’s the volleyball team. I think we, as seniors, have done a really nice job of emphasizing that. It’s not hard work. It’s because we all love each other and want to see each other succeed and support each other. It’s something that just comes really naturally to our team.”

Li said her senior year is about doing whatever she can for her teammates. “I want to get as many kills as I can in every game,” she said. “I wanna hit the ball harder than I ever had and I want to do it for my team. I want to cheer them on and support their goals. We rise as one and yeah, this is my senior season, but I’m really excited to just enjoy whatever time we have left with these amazing group of girls.”