On Friday, August 15, North girls volleyball played their first game at Westerville Central High School. After a few exciting sets, ultimately all the girls volleyball teams were defeated. After the big loss, the girls woke up the next morning and got straight back to work in a game at Hilliard Bradley.
Three games later the ladies are now sitting at an 0-4 record. Most teams would start giving up, but captain Ava Nickey (2026) says, “We still have an entire season ahead of us, so we’re just working toward those later wins.”
Nickey has been playing Varsity volleyball all four years, and she says that skill isn’t the only thing the girls have gotten better at. “We are a lot stronger mentally, and I truly believe we have the resilience and the right group of girls to turn things around,” Nickey says.
During the pre-season, the program had over 25 incoming freshmen show up to work hard at open gyms and lifting. Many hard decisions later, only 17 freshmen are in the program now; and even one on the varsity team. With it being her first year in the program, Kayla Brooks says that the tone was set from day one.
“From the beginning it was set in a way to work hard, and we especially need to use [a strong] work ethic since we don’t have a huge team,” Brooks says. It takes guts for anyone to step up and play on the Varsity team but Kayla said it was a “breeze [because] we always have each other’s backs before anything.”
With a frustrating start to the season, the team is one third of their way through their total games this year, with one win.
“We have really taken ownership of the program. [Coach] Korey [Comtess] is just there to guide us where we want to go,” Nickey says.
