Jaguars finish up injury-plagued campaign at 8-10
It’s been said more than once that the key to success is not in holding a good hand, but in playing a poor hand well.
That was the story for the Windsor High School volleyball team in the first year of North Bay League realignment, overcoming a brutal schedule exacerbated by illness and injury to log a great season.
In fact, the Jags played most of their matches down two or three starters, forcing wholesale changes to their line-up each week.
“We finished the season with an 8 in10 record but that doesn’t come close to telling how good this team really was,” veteran coach Rich Schwarz reflected. “All teams go through injuries but we didn’t play one match the whole season with our full team. I can’t say enough for all the players who stepped up and not only filled in, but filled in at positions they didn’t regularly play,” he added.
Jags fall in NCS playoffs
Windsor represented the #11 seed in the North Coast Section Division 2 playoff tournament, opening up on Oct. 23 at #6 seeded American High School in Fremont.
“All we knew about them was they were 19-5 so we decided to just work on improving what we do and getting used to our new lineups we were using, since some of our front row players were lost to injuries,” Schwarz noted. “We were in a great mental state knowing that with American being the higher seed they had all the pressure on them and we could just play.”
Game one started well for the Jags, knotting the set at 4-4 before setter Katie Todd went down with a knee injury. Although sophomore Hannah Dyer stepped in to do an admirable job, American went on to win the match in straight sets; 25-17, 25-16, 25-18.
Although no official stats were available, turning in outstanding efforts for Windsor were senior Rene Tolson, junior Madison Weber, seniors Brittany Johnson and Destiny Clark and great defense of junior libero Izzy Earl.
All leaguers announced
The Jaguars were well represented at the annual all league voting meeting of coaches, with Izzy Earl earning first-team honors while senior Elena Dyer was awarded second-team distinction.
