WESTBOROUGH – The Westborough girls’ volleyball team has been borderline unbeatable in recent years.
The team went undefeated in the 2021 regular season and 2022 regular season, reached two state championship games and won the 2022 MIAA Division 2 title. Last year, the team went nine games before losing their first set.
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Now, in 2023, the team hopes to remain dominant and perhaps repeat as champions.
According to Head Coach Roger Anderson, the team doesn’t feel any pressure to defend its title.
“Definitely, the kids who have been through [championships] remember it. I think we’ve learned a lot from 202[1] – that was some of what allowed us to have success the next year,” said Anderson, referencing Westborough’s 2021 championship loss to Hopkinton. “We try to treat each season as its own entity… We certainly always try to learn from whatever is under our belt, but each team has its own identity.”
Although the team graduated six seniors, including two starters, Anderson said that he’s ready for the next group of seniors to step up, lead the team and set the tone for the year.
“We’ve got a new group of seniors this year and a new group of captains,” he said. “We’re really excited about how they’re going to lead, develop, and we look forward to going out there each day and trying to get a little better.”
The team hasn’t yet had tryouts, but Anderson expects another strong team.
“We definitely have some pretty big holes to fill, but we come back with some pretty big pieces in place… We have some ideas of who we’re going to be [and] we have some people who played quite a bit of volleyball at a very high level. That gives us a good place to start,” Anderson said.
Anderson will start his 25th season coaching; he has made six state championships and won three titles in that time. While the team will have its eyes on the prize, Anderson noted that there’s more to volleyball than the championship trophy.
“I’m not necessarily more proud of the team that wins the state championship versus one that loses or one that doesn’t make it,” he said. “It’s really about taking what we have and trying to maximize [player’s] potential each year and develop them into being really good people. The state championships are really nice, but they are bonuses on top of what we’re really trying to do.”
