It seems like Northern Virginia has a whole other level of competition in youth sports, whether it be in soccer, lacrosse, football, or cheerleading. Battlefield High School demonstrates this with all of the extremely talented sports teams embedded in the school, including the volleyball team.

Occasionally, school sports teams will have one unusually talented player that blows away spectators and college recruits alike. However, Battlefield’s volleyball team already has 3 Division 1 commits with more certainly on the way. Julianna Quintero committed to the Pepperdine beach program as a sophomore, Emma Morris committed to Stanford beach as a sophomore, and Ella Yates, a junior, recently committed to the University of Oregon Ducks, also to play beach volleyball. With extraordinary talent like this, the goal for the entire team is to go to states.

The district season began with a match against John Champe, with Battlefield losing 2-3. This game was a rude awakening that no matter how talented a team is, with the wrong energy on the court, the opponent can always win. After the loss, Abigail Mills, the coach of Battlefield’s Varsity volleyball team, put together a meeting for the girls to talk about the disconnect. Olivia Clark, one of Battlefield’s setters on the team, says to Matt Venezia, producer of the Battlefield Sports Network, “We talked about how we needed to apply ourselves on and off the court no matter what give everything we’ve got, and how we’re such a good team and that we can win states- we just need to show everyone in the crowd and the opposing teams that we are Battlefield volleyball, and that we can do this.” Instead of bringing the girls down, it pushed them to become the best players they could possibly be. After the loss to Champe, the girls began their what is now a 24 set winning streak, beating the previous Battlefield High School record of 12 sets.  

One opponent that made all the girls nervous was Battlefield’s rival, Patriot. After losing against them twice during last year’s regular-season but beating them in the district game that mattered the most, Patriot would certainly be out for blood. Before the first game against Patriot, Battlefield played James Madison and won 3-2 in a nail-biting match. The girls lost the first two sets, but after they came to the realization that a second consecutive loss against opponents could affect their district record, they brought their A-game and won 3 sets in a row, the last almost being a shut-out. When they played Patriot, they shocked Patriot and Battlefield fans alike as they crushed Patriot 3-0 in a sweep. From there on out, all Battlefield brought home were wins. “We finally realized it was our time to step up,” Coach Mills says to Matt Venezia after the sweep against Patriot. “We finally realized we can’t have losses in the district anymore, we can’t be smiling and come in second like last year, this is our time to show up and prove that we’re Battlefield volleyball and it’s our time to win.” Battlefield officially climbed out of the slump and became more determined than ever to clinch the district title and move ahead to regionals.

Near the end of the regular season, Battlefield had to play against Patriot one more time to compete for first place. Both teams walked into the game with a 6-1 record and a desperation to win the title. “We want to make sure we have a lot of energy throughout every set, never looking down,” Merom Arthur, the starting middle hitter says to Matt Venezia, “that we are executing the ball, always getting our passes up to the net, and making sure we are ready and prepared to put the ball down.” Battlefield did exactly what Merom hoped, and beat Patriot in a sweep once again, securing the district title.

The Battlefield volleyball team has their hopes high for postseason, and as they head into regionals with the stakes high and the competition even tougher, they need the den and all their supporters more than ever. Since Battlefield is first in district, Battlefield gets to host the games home! Come and see the record-breaking Bobcats as they attempt to prove that Battlefield Volleyball is the best in the state!