Junior Andrea Osinkosky just finished up her fourth season of volleyball at Harrisonburg High School. This past season has been the best season in the last six years, but that wasn’t all do to skill levels.

“There was something about it that made me realize it was going to be a great year. It was something to do with the way we all clicked and got along together as a team,” Osinkosky said. “I kind of knew all of them. Before the season, I got the chance to know a lot of them and then we all came together as a team, and because we all knew each other so well, it all worked out really well.”

The Rockbridge Jamboree tournament at the very beginning of the season was the first time the varsity volleyball girls played as a team.  

“We had a tournament at the beginning of the season that we went to as a team and that was at the very beginning of the season. [We] played four or five different games. We had relay races in the middle of some games so that was a lot of fun,”Osinkosky said. “It was an all day tournament one Saturday. It was probably my favorite memory because we all came together as a team, and I realized that wow this is such an incredible group of people and this is going to be a great year and it was all so much fun. That was my favorite memory,” Osinkosky said.

Junior Becky Staton played the position of middle hitter on the varsity volleyball team. Staton also said that the tournament was her favorite memory.

“The very first game we played, we had like a tournament at the beginning of the season…we won three out of our five games and it was our first time playing together as a team. We came in there and people were like ‘Oh it’s just Harrisonburg, like whatever they’re nothing,’ and we were beating teams that were really good, so it was really fun,” Staton said. “I kind of think that brought all of us together, and I feel like that’s why we won a lot of our games this season, because we got really close like the first game of the season, the tournament.”

The varsity volleyball team was able to dominate EMHS, winning three sets to one.

“Before the EMHS game we all kind of hang out at one of the players houses and we just took huge team naps and we bonded. We went out to get lunch and all that stuff and then we came out and we beat EMHS on their senior night. [It was] their Alumni night and it was packed and we came in there and we beat them and it was a really hype game. I love that so much,” Staton said.

According to Staton, on top of the wins and losses and all the time together, the team also bonded through food. The varsity volleyball team has a Steak n’ Shake obsession.

“We traveled to Waynesboro and everyone on the team loves Steak n’ Shake, so much. There’s one in Waynesboro and there’s not one here, so we were all kinda asking our coach ‘Can we go to Steak n’ Shake after the game?’ and she was like ‘If you win.’ So we came in there and we beat Waynesboro on their home court and we got to go to Steak n’ Shake and it was really fun, we were dancing on the bus and getting hype and it was just really fun,” Staton said.