The Liberty volleyball team is resilient

Liberty has been through the ringer. A year ago they lost their head coach halfway through the season. Then the pandemic hit and the season was delayed. Then the club volleyball season got delayed and it collided with the high school season. The Lancers lost three key starters right before the season, "I was freaking out, honestly. We played for so long with them during the summer, in tournaments, and then a couple of days before tryouts we found out that they were gone," Sasha Elsner, Liberty's outside hitter.

Then four games into the year, they got hit with a Covid-19 outbreak and had to shut down for ten days. Then they had to cram a bunch of make up games into a short window with a little practice time and in spite of it all, they've won seven of their first nine game, "Our resilience is just crazy. We have overcome so much. Just to see everyone smiling on that court, everyone having fun, it's just amazing to see it,"
says Allie Rice, Liberty setter. Tierney Barlow, Liberty outside hitter added, "Going through that much adversity, and going through so many things, so many changes, and being able to be OK with it, I think we've gotten closer together. We've become a family."

Most teams would have crumbled under the pressure, Liberty thrived, "I was definitely surprised. I could tell we were all a little worried at the beginning of the season, losing some people, but I feel like we've really pulled it together during these last couple of weeks," says Elsner. Given everything they've been through, they believe they can handle anything, "We are on top of our game right now. There's no going back now. We're just going up from here," says Rice. "We're going to win everything," says Elsner.