Ripon High’s varsity volleyball girls took a trip to Reno, Nevada for their first tournament on Friday, Sept. 2. They played a total of seven games and won five over a total of three days. 

The girls headed up to Reno as a team on Friday morning and then played their first game at one o’clock when they arrived. They played a total of three games on Friday winning one of them. That night they had a team bonding dinner and game night before they went to sleep. On Saturday they woke up bright and early to get ready to play four more games. They won all four of those games on Saturday. 

“My favorite thing about the tournament was spending the night in the same hotel. We had a team bonding dinner in one of our rooms and played card games. We had a lot of memories and inside jokes from that night,” said Kailee Inderbitzin a junior.

Tournaments are of big importance to team bonding. When the team had free time they would play board games together in their hotel rooms allowing them to bond. The team learned that everyone truly cares about each other and they now feel able to depend on one another when going through tough times.

“This tournament definitely helped to bond our team, after playing nine games over three days everyone’s exhausted, hurting, and tired, the only way we were able to get through it and be successful was by leaning on one another,” stated Makenzie Loechler a senior.

As tournaments are a great place for team bonding they are also a great place for improvement, practice, and realization. Although normal games also prepare players for what is ahead, tournaments especially do so. They give them an opportunity to play more experienced teams for more intense games, they condition players to be ready for back-to-back games, and they help the team improve overall with communication and mentality in this different situation.

“I feel like my team has room for improvement when it comes to getting in our own heads. Volleyball is a very mentally exhausting sport and each of us doesn’t want to let our teammates down. However, at the end of the day, we all love each other and don’t care about the mistakes made during the game,” says Loechler.