Approaching tomorrow’s Game Night with confidence, the girls’ varsity volleyball team is more than ready to meet whatever challenge comes their way during this year’s match-up against Drake.

“Every single team is really competitive this year, and every team is a threat to us so we have to go into this game with the same mindset we would go into any game,” said Hannah Gerson, captain of the girls’ varsity volleyball team.

Though the girls have not played Drake since last year and do not consider them their most demanding rival, the team has focused on treating every game as if they were playing their top rival.

“One thing we’ve been trying to do this whole season is really just take every single one game at a time, and then really acting like no game is different from the other,” Gerson said.

According to Thorson,  the team has developed different techniques throughout the season to anticipate the size and energy of the crowd.

By playing music on full volume in the gym during practice, the team has simulated the Game Night atmosphere to prepare for the expectation of not being able to hear fellow teammates while playing on the court.

“We are mostly excited about the big crowd and that it is Game Night,” Thorson said, “because that title brings people to the game, and we love playing in front of people.”

Though the intensity of the crowd can be overwhelming at times, both captains said that the team feeds off the energy of the crowd as the crowd makes the game livelier.

“It’s helpful that we have had big games with fans already, because it’s kind of prepared us for Game Night and prepared us for the loudness and rowdiness of the fans,” Gerson said.

With a near perfect record of 21-1, the captains said have no doubt that their updated court strategies and new mindset will be more than enough to beat Drake.