Park girls’ volleyball won a crucial game against Washburn Oct. 24, marking a strong start to Sections.

Coach Whitney Meierotto-Simon said she is very happy with how the girls performed.

“We had a whole week off, and weeks can get long when you don’t have any matches,” Meierotto-Simon said. “I was really proud of us for playing at our level all night long. We really stayed aggressive and limited unforced errors.”

Meierotto-Simon said she had been working hard on preparing the girls for the match.

“We took last week to really dial it back and focus on the basics,” Meierotto-Simon said. “We really slowed the pace of the practice down to focus on the basic skills we had been doing in the beginning of the season.”

According to senior and captain Makaila Winward, keeping high energy throughout games has been a big focus throughout the season.

“Our main focus of the game was just to keep consistent energy,” Winward said.  “We have (had) trouble with that (during the season) and we did a really good job of keeping consistent energy throughout all three sets.”

Given its possible finality to the volleyball season, the game had very high stakes, according to Winward.

“It was stressful. Being a senior, it could have been my last game, but I was very confident in my team and what we can do,” Winward said.

Sophomore Lily Nugteren said she is excited by the prospects of Sections, and the potential to win.

“For as long as I can remember, our varsity team has been a really good team,” Nugteren said. “I expect us to do pretty well and get back up into the top five again.”

Their next game will be at 7 p.m on Oct. 29 at. against Benilde according to MSHSL.