David Mair, Staff Writer
As a captain of her first intramural volleyball team, first-year Paige Lilly’s team lost every game that season, but earned the rank of an all-star intramural athlete.
That team was compiled of a group of friends who had never played volleyball before, except for their captain.
It was the team’s first win of the second season and was Lilly’s proudest moment from playing volleyball at Pacific Lutheran University so far.
Lilly said of that first win “all of [their] hard work finally came together.”
When Lilly thinks of why she enjoys playing volleyball so much, her immediate reaction is a grin and a “I don’t.”
Lilly played volleyball growing up on a club team in both middle school and high school.
The game of volleyball just seemed to make more sense to her. Lilly knows “what’s going on in the game, the rules, and everything compared to other sports.”
As soon as Lilly started her first year at PLU, she formed an intramural volleyball team during the first semester and since then she has been the captain of three teams for three seasons and plays in the current intramural volleyball season.
Now a three-time captain, Lilly has quickly gained a lot of experience during her first year. She said that her favorite aspect of being a captain has been “being able to pick friends to be on [her] team,” and getting to “decide who gets to play what position.”
Sophomore Christian Rude, who has played under the captain-ship of Lilly for one season, said she is a feirce competitor.
“I just really appreciate how Paige is willing to sacrifice her body on every point, it’s really inspiring,” Rude said.
Every Monday, Lilly can be seen with her team practicing on the beach court on lower campus.
Though she has the team practice on the sand, Lilly prefers hard courts because “it’s easier to spike the ball on the courts,” and it’s “easier to run, easier all around.”
It makes sense as her favorite position she enjoys on the court is outside hitter, along with server.
Lilly is currently just a player for a friend’s intramural volleyball team.
Even though she is not a captain for the team, her role has not changed too much as she said, that people still look to to her for game times and forming the lineup for each game.
While Lilly does not plan to go professional with her volleyball talents, since she is working hard to become a kindergartner teacher, she does want to continue to play intramural volleyball as a captain with her friends. For Lilly, volleyball simply “puts her heart at pace.”
