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Wits Volleyball Players Spike Their Way to Nationals

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The Wits Volleyball team has reason to be proud, with two of their players being selected for the USSA Volleyball national team.

Ashleigh Accone and Aryanna Pillay were selected for the volleyball national team and had a thrilling time being part of the squad. Accone and Pillay shared their experiences with Wits Sports.  

Pillay is a third-year digital arts engineering student and the captain of the volleyball students’ team. She has played volleyball for eight years, after being inspired by seeing her father play volleyball throughout her life. This inspiration allowed her to work towards matching or surpassing her father’s volleyball achievements and moving toward becoming a notable player herself. Despite her years of experience, training for the tournament was of utmost importance to ensure a smooth journey.

“For USSA, I maintained fitness during the exam period and attended all training sessions and friendly matches to ensure that the team and I had the chemistry we needed so that we could play well together on court,” she said. This commitment to improving her performance and leading her team translated into a stellar performance for the team.

Her teammate, Ashleigh Accone, was also an invaluable player for the team. Accone started her volleyball career much later than Pillay, during the 足球竞彩app排名 isolation period. She started playing volleyball with her mother and joined a team to play elite in September 2022 after watching her first Volleyball Nations League tournament. Accone plays the setter position at Wits Volleyball, and she dedicates herself to orchestrating attacks for her team.

This USSA experience was her first time playing in the tournament which came with many nerves and some thrills. “?For USSA I thought that the most important thing to do was to connect with the team, since I joined late into the season. I wanted to make sure our connection off the court was just as unified and seamless as on the court,” she said.

Much like Pillay, she was set on ensuring that the team worked well together and had the necessary synergy to make it all the way. Due to a large portion of the team being made up of first-time USSA participants, they needed to work harder to build chemistry. This dedication to building a strong bond made some of the challenges they faced less intense. Being based on the host institution’s campus, the team took the opportunity to walk to and from the playing venue, using the time to strengthen their team dynamic and build personal connections. “Despite the weather, it was a great team bonding exercise, and I think it made the team appreciate where we were playing the tournament and reminded them of all the hard work, we experienced to get there,” Pillay shared.

The team performed to the best of their abilities, and it translated into personal successes for both Pillay and Accone. This could easily mark a huge moment in their exciting volleyball journeys, and things can only go up from there!

 

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