After girls’ volleyball clinched a close win against Armstrong, sophomore Addison Chenvert said the energy from the fans helped propel the team through the tough match.

“The more we play, the more excited we get and the more hyped we get,” Chenvert said. “We don’t get that tired because we feel the excitement from the crowd and each other, and that makes up for it.”

Freshman Huston Samoy said outside of the crowd’s spirit, the team also capitalized on its own optimism.

“Having high-energy all the time, in every point (is very important),” Samoy said.

Head coach Sam Hanlon said that leading up to the match on Sept. 29, which Park won 3-1, there were many uncertainties, as a key player was out with an injury.

“Our starting center, Amara Schroeder, was out with a concussion tonight, so we had to start Abby Ellingson,” Hanlon said. “She stepped up really well tonight, filling that position that we really needed, so that was a big job and I’m really proud of them because of that.”

According to Chenvert, despite the setbacks associated with losing a starting player, the team performed very well.

“We really excelled in finishing our plays (today),” Chenvert said. “Recently, we’ve been doing good up until the end of the play where we don’t finish well, so I think we did good in that today.”

According to Hanlon, taking an active offensive position in plays is very important within the game, and was something the team did well with.

“When we make sure that we are doing the right things, that’s when our play get’s good,” Hanlon said. “When we start to sit back and let the play happen to us, that’s when it gets harder for us to keep pushing points, but we did a good job tonight of not doing that. A lot of time in a row, we shut (the play) down right away, and scored some more points.”

Going into future matches, Chenvert said that the team tries to play at the same intensity no matter who it is playing.

“We try to play the same (regardless of opponent), but mentally that can be difficult,” Chenvert said.

Preparing for their next match, Hanlon said that the team is going to work on general skills such as defense, while also covering more niche topics.

“The biggest thing for us is to just continue working on defense — we always get better with that,” Hanlon said. “Then there are things like tip coverage — really just covering whatever a team might throw at us.”

The next game is at 7 p.m. Oct. 1, at Burnsville High School against Burnsville.