The volleyball season is reaching its peak as the first-place Oyster River Bobcats (8-0) try to defend last year’s championship title.
Their undefeated run finds itself in potential danger as they host rival Coe Brown-Northwood Academy (CBNA) on Wednesday, September 27th at 5:45 PM. So far, CBNA’s only loss was against the Bobcats earlier this season in a 3-1 thriller. The Bobcats have fine-tuned their strategy to remain the champions of route 4.
Although 3-1 is a big win for the Bobcats, they don’t feel it was what it needed to be. “We definitely had a lot of hitting errors […] It’s definitely more of a mental thing. I’m not a hitter personally, but all of our hitters definitely have the ability to get good hits.” said Co-Captain Emilia Cavicchi (‘24).
Emy Przybylski (‘24) says the team can benefit from playing them already this season. “We are able to watch how they play and learn how they’re scoring points on us and what we can do to score points against them and kind of using that to make a game plan.”
The Bobcats used their last game against Kennett High School as a way to get themselves in the right mental state to play CBNA again. Starting libero Aubrey Young (‘26) said that she feels the communication has been off in every game leading up to then. But they have been making strides. “We’ve been talking with each other and watching over film.” They were finally able to implement it into the Kennett game by keeping their energy high and uplifting each other.
There will be a little more on the line for players than normal, because it’s a rivalry game. “I think that it’s honestly a really high-emotion game because there’s this rivalry that not even us, but like both of our schools have kind of build up a lot.” Said the other Co-Captain, Annabelle Svenson (‘24). Svenson also said that the very intensity makes this game different from any other.
No matter the sport, whenever Coe Brown comes to play Oyster River, the fans show up. In this specific game, they will be rocking a theme of red, white and blue. Senior and one of the many “Superfans” at ORHS (Oyster River High School), John Vittorioso (‘24) said, “You can definitely expect a lot of energy and a lot of support for our volleyball team.”
Another “Superfan” that will make his presence felt at the game is senior Tommy Fogg (‘24). “Coe Brown’s going to be trying to get their revenge and we’re going to be trying to keep the crown. […] I’m looking forward to it. Fans are going to be pumpin’, popcorn is going to be running, and red, white and blue is going to be all over.”
– Kevin Kell
Images Courtesy of Ana Figueiredo