LINWOOD – The Mustang girls volleyball team is in a building season this year after losing some key players to graduation.
Helping them on their learning curve is head coach Torie Rich, who was the inaugural coach of the program and now back at the helm.
Rich coached the team for the first three years then took a break starting in 2021 after her daughter was born. In the interim, she began coaching the new boys volleyball team and will do double-duty this year with both boys and girls teams.
“It’s fun to be back. It’s definitely different,” Rich said Sept. 10 before the team’s match with Atlantic County Institute of Technology. “Girls are a lot different than boys to coach. And it is fun to see what they’ve done in the last couple of years and kind of what we’re capable of for the future of this program.”
“The team lost a couple key players last year so we’re in a little bit of a building year and we’re just going one game at a time, trying to get better one game at a time,” Rich said.
The team went three sets to open the season with a close loss against Middle Township, then lost matches 2-0 to Hammonton, Absegami and ACIT.
Rich has two seniors that start for her, the middle blocker and Ana Killibarda, who is “really good. Very athletic, a good hitter. Our opposite hitter Ashley Piereth, is doing some really good things over there on the side,” Rich said.
She also has a young setter, Gia Miraglia, “who is working her butt off right now,” and libero Ella Barsotti. Barsotti, the coach said, “is just really crushing it defensively for us.”
Richie said one of the strengths of the team is how they are working together and the fact that the girls are also friends off the court, “which we hope kind of translates onto the court.”
Another is “that middle and opposite side when we have Ana and Ashley working together. That is definitely our strength.”
The team does need to work “a bit” on communication because there are girls from a mix of grades.
She noted the team also features Gui Gui Derichie, younger sister of Bella Derichie, who played for Rich back in 2021. “Gui Gui is going to shape up to be a very, very good volleyball player in the Cape-Atlantic League.”
Rich said her team will continue to work on its communication and will be “just taking every point one point at a time, trying to get better every single game. Building years are a little tough, but we’re just trying to stay competitive with some of the teams here in the Cape-Atlantic League.”
The girls are on the road for four straight games – Monday at Ocean City, Wednesday at Pleasantville, Thursday at Our Lady of Mercy Academy and Saturday at Triton Regional. They’re back home Monday against Egg Harbor Township. JV plays first at 4 p.m.; varsity is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
