The New Trier girls volleyball team entered the season with 13 players who had prior varsity experience.
But this year has proven to be nothing like 2014.
One year after earning the No. 8 seed in its sectional and losing in the regional final, the Trevians have won 16 matches in a row.
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“We didn’t have the same mental toughness last year,” New Trier coach Hannah Hsieh said. “Any time we went tight last year, it seems like we lost. This year we are demonstrating we can push through in those type of matches.”
One example of that was the Trevians’ 13-25, 25-19, 27-25 win over Marian Central on Friday, Sept. 18, at Mother McAuley’s invitational.
Hsieh said the victory over the Hurricanes, a 2014 Class 3A sectional champion, has been the “defining match of the season” so far.
“We probably weren’t predicted to win that game, but we took it as an opportunity to prove something to ourselves,” said senior libero and Harvard commit Isabelle Tashima. “That win gave us a whole new confidence, and we set our standards higher.”
Tashima, the younger sister of former New Trier and current Northwestern standout setter Taylor Tashima, said the Trevians now thrive in close matches and pressure situations.
“After we accomplished what we did, we know what we can do,” she said. “We stay calm.”
New Trier (16-2, 4-0 Central Suburban South) never lacked for talent, according to Hsieh, but they needed to overcome their own self-doubt. Other victories that have helped the Trevians to do that include two wins over Loyola, a Class 4A semifinalist last year. New Trier beat the Ramblers in two sets on Saturday, Sept. 5, and in three sets on Friday, Sept. 25.
“We had to get them to believe in themselves,” Hsieh said. “They also had to learn how to shake off a bad point or bad game.”
One way Hsieh has challenged the players to deal with pressure is with serving. Every so often she will stop practice and call on a few girls to serve aggressively. If even one of the girls misses a serve, everybody on the team, except the servers, has to run.
“They have to go in cold and hit a serve,” Hsieh said. “It’s pressure because they don’t want to be the reason their teammates have to run. And serving has become a strength of ours. There aren’t very many matches where we’ve struggled with errors. It’s because they have confidence in themselves to do it when it counts.”
Isabelle Tashima said the Trevians trust each other, especially in the heat of the moment. That was the case in the must-win second set against Marian Central. New Trier went on to capture the championship at Mother McAuley. With it came an invitation to next year’s ASICS Challenge, a national tournament.
“A lot of what we’ve done this year is because of our chemistry,” Isabelle Tashima said. “I don’t think we had as much of that last year. We are all very supportive of one another.”
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