Team Captain Sophie Czrepica in the middle of a team huddle. Photo by Ronald Batista.
Senior and captain of the volleyball team Sophie Czerepica is striving to aim for her goal of continuing to win even more games and make her Senior year as memorable as possible for her and her teammates.
Czerepica carries the position of being outside, front row, and back row. She has been playing volleyball from a young age, she tells us that “[her] parents actually met playing volleyball. [She] love[s] how [her] parents and [her] have a common interest for the sport.”. Czerepica additionally joined the Malden Recreation Department for Volleyball in seventh grade and the middle school volleyball league where different schools versus one another. When entering high school, Czerepica joined as soon as she could.
Something that she always thought she needed to improve on was “ working on improving [her] court IQ.” Czerepica explains that she wants to improve on her in game reactions to different situations. A strength of hers are her serves. Junior Gabriella Carli also adds that her serves are very strong and “besides how she plays her other strengths are never letting a team member leave the court without knowing that trying their best is all that matters.”
When speaking of the team, for the remaining season Czerepica believes that some things that the can team can improve on is “ not getting too worked up and just enjoy playing the sport [they] all love.” For the team their“biggest strength is that [they] all support each other [and] work really well together.” She also adds on that she loves being on the team, not only do they feel like “one big family”,but like a huge support system they have established for everyone.
Being a student with such a busy schedule, Czerepica explains how she overcame it all. “At sometimes it can be hard to balance school and volleyball,but [she] find[s] time whenever [she] can to do [her] school work. Being a student athlete, has taught [her] how to have good time management.”.
With the four years of playing Volleyball at Malden High school, three of them being on the Varsity team, she expresses how much has changed since her first years of playing the sport and describes that with all the good and bads she is happy to see how much the team has progressed. “All the lost games made that one win feel amazing because all [their] hard work finally paid off. [Czerepica is] so proud of where this team has gone in just in a few months.”
Czerepica has a great passion for the sport and plays in an all year long private volleyball club that started after the season ends. Last year her club won the New England championship and went to Phoenix Arizona for the nationals. She quotes that “[they] played teams from all over the country and even some from other countries. It was an amazing experience. [Her] team was the youngest team in [their] division and finished in top 15 out of 100, which is pretty good.”. She also dances out of school, she dances on a competitive dance team in Woburn.
After high school she wants to continue her volleyball career. As the end of the season comes to an end,she wants to say that “[she is] very proud of [her] team and [is] truly going to miss the MHS volleyball season.”
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