Girls’ Volleyball Team Becomes DCIAA Champions for the First Time in 10 years

The Walls’ volleyball team has always been very good. Usually, our Penguins and Jackson-Reed end up facing off in playoffs and the championships. For ten years, Jackson-Reed came out on top. But this year, the team made history, defeating the Tigers in a suspenseful, edge-of-your-seat final.  

The game went to 5-sets as each team tried to win 3, meaning that it was super close. After a back and fourth first opening two sets, the team faltered due to exhaustion in the third. But, they had a team talk and came back to demolish in the 4th and 5th sets. 

The volleyball team played Jackson-Reed earlier in the season. They ended up losing, and Kate Parker (‘28) attributed that outcome to the fact that the game was their first. She said, “we only had three practices…we weren’t really moving together as a team.” Eva Peres da Camara (‘27) commented on a shifted perspective this season. She said that previously “we had treated JR as if they could never be beat, but during the season our outlook and resolve changed.” 

Both Parker and captain Taylor Brown (‘26) noted that the team this year had unusual chemistry. Parker said, “this might be one of the healthiest teams I’ve been on,” adding, “it’s really hard to get twelve girls to really like each other and because of that, there’s always some form of conflict…it was really amazing…everyone was just so nice and kind.” Brown alluded to this as well, saying the team “was very unified…fun and lively.” Peres da Camara agreed, noting that, “our captains Elle and Taylor were able to strengthen our team confidence and I think after playing Bc [sic] with one another for so long we grew closer and our setter-hitter connections were much more crisp.”

As a captain, Brown is a very important leader on the team. She was on the team for all of her four years at Walls. The win was especially important to her as she noted “I…saw the growth of our team” and “it just means a lot.”  

After the game, Parker, feeling satisfied, commented on how the team showed up at the championship, saying “we were gonna put it all out there” and “we [had] nothing left to lose.”  Brown also discussed how prepared the team was for the big game. She said, “we just had like a set plan in the championship game of like what we’re running.”  

As Walls is an academically rigorous school, many of the school’s sports teams are underestimated. But, the volleyball team set an example and proved that Walls is a formidable enemy both academically and athletically. The team believed they could win, so they did!