John Orrell<\/b><\/p>\n
HOLDEN \u2014 After missing playoffs by an eyelash a season ago, the Wachusett Regional High girls varsity volleyball team is back and primed to forge a different outcome for this 2022 campaign.<\/p>\n
One returning player who recalls the disappointment of coming up just short is outside hitter junior Claire Michalowski, who vows to see this squad be successful in the season that kicked off\u0081 Aug. 31 with a matchup versus visiting Oxford High.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a hard blow to take that we weren\u2019t making the playoff\u0081s last year,\u201d said Michalowski, who also holds a black belt in karate. \u201cI don\u2019t think any of us want to go through that again, so we\u2019re going to show how much we can do this year. We have a whole bunch of really good players coming in, and I\u2019m very excited and looking forward to the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really do enjoy being outside hitter, but also like the feeling of working with your team to win. Not one person makes or breaks your team. You might have one really good person, but if the rest of them aren\u2019t good, your team\u2019s not going to be good.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cClaire made varsity as a sophomore as one of our outside hitters,\u201d said WRHS head coach Jennifer Burton. ‘She is talented in all facets of the game: hitting, defense and serving. She was an impact player for us last year in a tough Mid-Wach A schedule.<\/p>\n
\u201cClaire works all year long to improve her skills and plays as much volleyball she can at the highest level possible. She’s very hard-working; her teammates love her. She’s a student of the game, very smart and determined. She will make a fi\u008dne coach someday. She helps out whenever needed, does the little things that are necessary, often without being asked.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michalowski\u2019s love of the sport of volleyball came slightly later than most, as it was freshman year where she broke in on the JV team before being promoted to varsity one year later. She comes from a very sports-oriented family \u2014 she is the youngest of four athletic siblings \u2014 that helped move things along informally.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a lot of the skills that some kids get when they played middle school because I played for three years in my backyard with my siblings,\u201d she said. \u201cThere are a lot of hitters a lot taller than me (5-foot-7) so I have to jump pretty high. That\u2019s just something I have to keep working at.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michalowski gives credit where credit is due, and that is with the setters who feed her the ball so she can deliver a decisive spike or feather the ball for a soft drop onto opponents\u2019 territory for points. Knowing she has such competent teammates makes life on the court a little less nerve-wracking.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpiking the ball feels really good, but it\u2019s also our amazing setters at Wachusett that know how to put the ball in the right place and let me get that feeling,\u201d she said. \u201cGoing into games, I do get a little nervous, but once you start playing, it\u2019s almost like all the excitement of playing just rushes into you. It becomes really fun, really fast.<\/p>\n
\u201cCommunication is super important, because you have to know what\u2019s happening. Talking to people and knowing they have your back and you have theirs, it makes the game go by a lot smoother than if it was all quiet. The game goes by a lot faster than you think it will. You\u2019re going to miss points, but you have to trust that your teammates are going to be there with you, understand and will get the next one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Intense gym work to maintain strength and stamina are not at all foreign to Michalowski. She knows that it all comes with the territory, but it is worth it when it helps her performance on the court.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do a lot of leg work and conditioning to make sure I can jump at a consistently good height throughout the game. Some of the long rallies do take a toll, and it\u2019s not much fun if you\u2019re not in good shape,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really do love the game and enjoy all the people I work with at Wachusett. Sometimes you get tired and it seems like practice is dragging on forever. They really help you get through it. Those little moments of doubt, they really help you.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to academics and sports, Michalowski volunteers for NEADS Service Dogs, a training facility in Princeton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
John Orrell HOLDEN \u2014 After missing playoffs by an eyelash a season ago, the Wachusett Regional High girls varsity volleyball team is back and primed to forge a different outcome for this 2022 campaign. One returning player who recalls the disappointment of coming up just short is outside hitter junior Claire Michalowski, who vows to see this squad be successful in the season that kicked off\u0081 Aug.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40037,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}