Hitting Out of Her League: Featuring Lauryn Walters
By Ian Busking
The Owasso Rams volleyball team just won their last few games in Orlando, Florida and are headed on the long 24 hour drive back home. The Rams played in a large tournament there and are looking to keep up the momentum from where they left off when they get back home. One of the players who stands out the most so far in the 2021 season for the Rams is Lauryn Walters, an OHS senior. Walters is an outside hitter for the Rams and has been achieving impressive statistics in multiple games.
Walters helped to wrap up The Lady Ram’s time in Orlando where the team had to play their opponents in a blind draw. Without having the opportunity to watch film on the teams that they were playing, since they all come from many different states, it made it challenging to read the teams play style.
“This made it a little more challenging and put more pressure on us to do our best to win our games,” Walters cautioned.
Photo of Lauryn Walters hitting by Mrs. Hayden
Despite this, the Rams pushed through the test of playing unknown teams and finished with a record of 5-1 in the tournament. Along with the team's recent success, Walter’s has been having lots of success of her own.
Walter’s mentions, “In the most recent games I have been getting around 13 kills per game. My connection with my setter has been getting stronger over the past four years which has helped a lot.”
To achieve numbers like those, Walters and the rest of the team pushed their limits all summer to get ready for this season. By the looks of the Rams’ success so far, the countless hours seem to have been paying off. They woke up by the crack of dawn to go lift and attend summer workouts almost every day to get into top tier shape.
While having to spend all of that time together, the Rams have come a long way with their team chemistry. The bond that they have created is an exponential reason why they have been winning a lot of their games recently.
“As a team we all get along very well inside and outside of volleyball, which I believe helps us work together to win games. We also feed off of eachother tremendously…once one person gets hyped we all do,” Walters expressed.
When having such a strong team bond, it is often easy to forget that this moment will not last forever; for Walters and the other seniors, this is their last season of volleyball together.
“It is surreal that it is my last year playing with these girls and coaches that I have been with for the past four years. I am super sad that it has to end but eager to see what lies ahead in my volleyball future,” Walters reminisces.
While there is still a lot of the season left to play, come out and support the Owasso Lady Rams volleyball team as they work toward playing in the state championship game and hopefully winning it all.