From Monday, Feb. 15, to Wednesday, Feb. 17th, Jefferson’s volleyball team conducted tryouts in Gym 1 for two to four hours each day to determine teams. Going into tryouts, the players were unable to have their typical pre-season preparations. 

“Personally, I was feeling a little rusty going into tryouts because I hadn’t played volleyball in awhile, but I think we were all able to get right back into it when tryouts started.” junior Libby McClough said. “Also, not having conditioning sessions made it a bit more difficult to welcome and get to know the freshmen, but the teams have been able to get to know each other pretty quickly during practice.”

With the COVID-19 Pandemic, players are experiencing some benefits and drawbacks with the season shifted later in the year. 

“A positive of having volleyball later in the year is that it didn’t take up a month of my summer. That also means the season is much shorter than normal. A negative is that COVID-19 has made the practices slightly less social as we try to maintain distancing as much as possible.” junior Erika Ramirez said. 

New Phase 3 guidelines were announced with the changes in the COVID-19 cases in Fairfax County. This resulted in games and practices having to change their social distancing and sanitization policies. 

“We have to wear masks during practice and sanitize all the nets, poles, balls, and mats after every practice. Also, to make room for spring sports and COVID, our season is condensed into 1 month,” junior Jeanie Qi said. “This means around 3 games per week with some games on the weekends. This change decreases the amount of practice we get and creates less room for improvement between games.”

However, the players are finding ways to make the most out of their upcoming season and hope to create a sense of normalcy in their lives. 

“I am really excited to get to play again even though this season is short and limited by COVID-19,”  junior Christine Franklin said. “Although we cannot high five and hug each other, our team has been thinking of creative ways to show support. I’m excited to see how it goes.”