By Jane Locander

Imagine a gym full of girls calling “ mine!” or “got it” as they bump, set, and spike the ball across the net. The crowd goes wild as they score the winning set! But did it ever occur to you that these volleyball players have stories of their own to tell? That was the focus of the this year’s fall play “Volleygirls”, a play by Rob Ackerman. The coach of the St. Agnes volleyball team, played by Zach McCloud, has a problem: most of the girls on his team from last year have quit. The team works its way through many hardships in the beginning with their small
team and the start of their season is looking bleak. The girls can’t seem to get it together on or off the court; Katie, portrayed by Emerald Pierson, and Crash, Rosy VanHyfte, have started a feud over a boy, while Jess, Peyton
Robertson, is trying to deal with her crush on Xavier. Marisol, Briana Castro, takes matters into her own hands and brings back some team spirit with the help of Liv and Ingrid, portrayed by Zoe Zelnio and Hailey Lane. Characters
such as the Russian referee, portrayed by Keith Glass, and student sports announcer Xavier, played by Joshua Stivers, provide comedic relief as the team experiences their first win followed by many losses. One thing I found frustrating with the play is that the various players stories and problems sort of jumped from person to person and their effects on the plot was minimal, if any at all. Although I hadn’t mentioned this previously, this play focuses on some of the girls’ parents as well. I can see why this was done as it gives us insight
into the girls’ lives at home, but it honestly takes away from the main characters, which are the girls on the team. But don’t get me wrong, I still thought the cast did a an amazing job portraying their characters! The accent spoken
by the referee and some of the lines from the other characters, such as Carla and Xavier, managed to get me to laugh and saved the play for me. One of the actors that really impressed me was Joshua Stivers. He is a freshman and this
is his first time acting on the MHS stage, but his performance was spectacular.
If I had to give this play a rating I would give it 6.5 stars out of 10 as while it is certainly not the worst story out there, it had flaws. However it was portrayed very well, and the actors worked their very best with what they were given, and I have to give them props for that. After this production, I myself am hopeful that the next upcoming MHS production will capture my attention.