STORY BY CORA TASSET
PHOTOS BY ALLISON SCHWEIZER AND CORA TASSET
VIDEO BY SETH THOMPSON
The FHSU Tiger volleyball team showed their energy, competitiveness, and spirit at the black and gold volleyball scrimmage on Tuesday. The Tigers played hard and continued to have fun throughout each game. With seven freshmen and only one senior this year the team is young and has room to grow, but also shows great promise.
The Tigers all competed very well no matter what team they were on. The black team came out on top 25-19 in the first game. The second game was a very intense match as both teams were neck and neck until finally the gold team pulled through and won 29-27. After the second game, both teams had a win, so they had to play a third game to break the tie where the gold team came together and got another win 25-20. After the gold team came out on top the team continued to play just for fun, and a little more practice.
Coach Jessica Wood-Atkins joined the Tigers in January of 2018. She played volleyball in Kentucky at Murray State University and wanted to continue her career as a coach.
“I love Fort Hays State because of the amount of support that the team gets from the Hays community, whether they are on the court or in the classroom,” Wood-Atkins said.
During her second year at FHSU, Coach Wood-Atkins states that, “I would like to bring my players closer and keep working on improvements [with] this young team.”
First-year freshman, Morgan Christiansen (7), is excited to get this season started. Christiansen says that she loves the passion and high energy that her teammates have for the game.
“I am looking forward to growing closer with her team and improving throughout the season,” Christiansen stated.
Abbie Hayes (43) is the only senior on the team this season. She has been the leader for the Tigers and grown very close with the girls in the very few weeks that they have been together. Hayes has watched them step up and be leaders in their own positions when they need to be. Abbie commented that, “she made it her goal to get 1,000 career digs to finish out her season; with about 700 digs already taken care of she believes that she can achieve this goal.” Throughout the season Hayes states that, “she would like her team to grow closer and overall have a winning season.”
The Tigers have a promising season coming up.
“We are extremely excited to see how well we can do and how much the team can improve,” stated Coach Wood-Atkins.
With such a young team they have so much room to grow and have an amazing season. You can support the Tigers in their opening exhibition match against the Friends University Lady Falcons on Monday the 2nd at 4 p.m. at Gross Memorial Collesium.