Going into the 2024 volleyball season, the Potosi girls were nervous but determined to make this season the best it could be. The Chieftains started the season with eleven returning players and five new players on varsity. Little did they know, it would be an exciting season with successful faceoffs against their biggest rival, River Ridge.
The season began with a tournament at Highland, where the team played River Ridge and lost. The tournament matches consisted of two sets, played to 25 points. If both teams each won a set, there would be a third set to 15. River Ridge swept the Chieftains in two sets, but the sets were close. Senior Nova White said, “It was a long day, I think we let the win slip.” This loss fueled the Lady Chieftains to return to the court stronger later in the week.
Later that same week, the Chieftains traveled to River Ridge on September 3rd to take on the Wolves in their home gym. The first set went 17-25, with Potosi overtaking River Ridge. The second set again went 17-25, then the third set where the lady Chieftains swept River Ridge to 21-25. “I was very confident that we were going to pull out a win and I was not nervous,” said senior Hope Haase.
The next time the Chieftains faced Ridge, Ridge came with more fight. On September 26th, River Ridge traveled to Potosi to play again, this time in Potosi’s home gym. The Wolves had something more to fight for than just themselves. After losing the coach's husband earlier in the week to a long battle with brain cancer, River Ridge came with the intention to win. The Chieftains gave their sympathy and support by giving out cards, hair ties with purple and gray ribbons, and each player on the Potosi volleyball team wore gray for brain cancer, but Potosi was still ready to compete with their rivals.
In the first two sets, River Ridge beat Potosi 25-17 and 25-15. The third and fourth sets were both nail-biters, where River Ridge and Potosi kept within a few points of each other until Potosi took the win in both sets with scores of 17-25 and 20-25.
Then during the fifth set, River Ridge fell short and Potosi took the win 15-5. “It felt good to come back and beat River Ridge because that’s something we haven’t done in how long.” Senior Miranda Kieler also talked about how Potosi hasn’t beaten River Ridge in a few years, and winning both games against them shows how competitive Potosi’s program is this season.
“Winning against River Ridge was one of the games where our hard work came full circle. It was really one of the paydays. It showed all of our hard work was really paying off,” said Senior Nova White. All of the Potosi volleyball players related to that feeling on the night.