NHS volleyball spikes Falcons despite lineup changes

With the final push toward the end of the season, Niwot High School's volleyball team had to make some unexpected lineup changes.

But this would not be the first time the group had shuffled positions. Going into the season, some players wanted to take a shot at a new place on the court.

"Well, you know, actually, we've got a couple kids that have decided that they want to try some different positions," Head Coach Tony Engel said. "So Brooke Caquelin and Eloise VanSelus, who's a sophomore as well, have both stepped up in practice. And then of course, you know, Sienna Knight I think was almost shocked that she was actually on the varsity, but she absolutely deserved it. She has, you know, been day-in-day-out the hardest worker in the gym and it shows how she's actually progressed from day one."

Setter Anne Haley injured her ankle in practice, placing pressure on Engel to make quick decisions before Tuesday's game against Skyline High School. In her absence, Knight was ready to step up and helped lead the team to a 3-0 victory over the Falcons (25-21, 25-18, 25-12).

"Obviously we had a bit of a change in our starting lineup," Engel said. "Anne Haley turned an ankle on Monday. Sienna Knight came in and has done a wonderful job in the last two matches for us. So, you know, we're going through a little bit of a transition, but we also have progressed steadily since the end of practice."

Knight posted 22 assists for the night. Addison Engel aided her with 11 kills, along with Julia Dadey with four aces and 12 digs, and Sami Sessa with 15 digs. In total, the lineup posted eight aces, 29 kills, and 45 digs.

Engel had no doubt the new configuration of his team would find success.

"My seniors have really stepped up," he said. "And it's been a wonderful surprise. But also, I shouldn't necessarily be surprised. You know, the expectation would be that they would kind of cover for their fallen leader. Fantastic. So the team itself decided to kind of embrace [Sienna] and make sure that she's got the confidence to go out there and do her job."

Thursday night's game became another chance to fine tune the new lineup. Facing Roosevelt High School, the Cougars once again found a 3-0 victory (25-20, 25-15, 25-17) and increased their winning streak to four.

The Cougars put seven serving aces, 36 assists, 49 digs, and 38 kills on their side of the scoreboard for the night.

However, the hard part of the season is just beginning. A harder schedule at the front of the season was followed by an easier stretch, so going into the intensity of postseason could be a challenge.

Sessa doesn't worry about how an easier schedule may affect the postseason, and sees facing lower-ranked opponents as a strength, not a weakness.

"It helps us boost our ranking on 4A overall," she said. "We started off with a really hard schedule and we had lower rankings because of that hard schedule and those losses, but now that we've played some easy teams, it's allowed us to run different stuff. So now when we do go play those harder teams, it's going to make us feel like we can win."

Looking forward, the Cougars have three games left in the regular season. Their upcoming schedule includes a game against Frederick High School, ranked sixth in the conference, on Tuesday, Oct. 10 at 6:30 p.m. at Frederick. On Thursday, Oct. 12 at 6:30 p.m. at home, they will face Mountain View High School, ranked eighth in the conference. Their final season game is Tuesday, Oct. 17 at 6:30 p.m. at home against Riverdale Ridge (9-3).