Fighting hard in its sixth match of the season and first match against Benilde-St. Margaret’s, Park volleyball lost in three sets Sept. 14.

According to senior Sophie Chenvert, although the energy from the team started strong, it declined as the game progressed.

“As a team, we were really hyped up because of the music they were playing coming into the game, and that (hype) slowly dropped,” Chenvert said.

According to head coach Sam Hanlon, that decline in energy is a big part of what the team is working on right now, and it’s difficult to translate from a practice environment to a game environment.

“We try as hard as we can (to keep morale high),” Hanlon said. “It’s hard when you have a quiet practice space and then you come to a game like this, but we do as much as we can to make sure that they are focused on the game and their teammates, and not focused on everyone else.”

According to junior Maecee Alexander, another reason why keeping spirits high on the court is important is to compensate for the loss of players in previous years.

“We lost a lot of good players (last year), so our confidence went down a lot. I’m trying to bring back that confidence and have a lot of energy while we’re playing,” Alexander said.

According to Chenvert, on a physical aspect, players struggled to communicate and connect with each other, which is something the team plans to improve upon in the future.

“Today, as a team, I feel that we lost communication, and struggled to complete each play. We’re still getting better and better,” Chenvert said. “Individually, it was not my best game, and I struggled to get in the game mentally, but I’ll come back.”

Hanlon said, going forward, the team just needs to keep getting the experience of matches, working on both the mental and physical components of volleyball.

“We just need more people to start stepping up, because they don’t have the experience of knowing what they need to do. We are working hard to get there; it’s not just a physical game, it’s a mental game. That’s the biggest part we’re working on building up right now,” Hanlon said.

The next game is at 7 p.m. Sept. 21 at home against New Prague.