Photo by Savannah Schmidt.
Hoover players celebrate during a match against Homewood on Aug. 29. The Bucs have nine seniors leading the way for the 2024 team.
Senior night took a while at Hoover High School’s Sept. 18 volleyball match. That’s because the Bucs have nine seniors on the varsity team this year, enough to field a team and a half.
Those seniors celebrated their special night by sweeping Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa 3-0 and improving to 2-0 in area play. Those numbers point to a group of seniors determined to play well and put together a strong final season. In 2023, the Bucs advanced to the Class 7A state semifinals. Many within the program felt as if people were surprised by the team’s success and deep run in the postseason.
Now in the third season under Amanda Wood, the Bucs are ready for that type of run to become, at the very least, the standard.
They would like to go even deeper this fall, potentially making a run at the state championship. If Olivia Guenster, Addison Bentley, Layla Smith, Sophia Shofner, Amelia Browne, Madi Lopez, Sydney Durban, Madeline Splawn and Kayla Terrell have anything to say about it, that’s where the Bucs will be in late October. “We all want the same outcome,” Browne said. “It helps guide the younger ones. We want to win state.”
Up to this point, the Bucs have been a work in progress. There have been plenty of positives, but also some concerns. Jumping ahead of teams like Daphne and Hewitt-Trussville by winning the first two sets in comfortable fashion looks great, but dropping the final three sets in those matches was less than desirable.
But the confidence has been building throughout September. The Bucs won two tournaments in Tennessee. They also notched match wins over the likes of Mountain Brook, Auburn and Vestavia Hills.
“Play our game, be confident in ourselves and trust one another,” Durban said of how the team plans to continue that rise through-out the season. Terrell said when the team is at its best, the energy is high and the team maintains a positive attitude even through tough stretches in a match. With that many seniors, there is a daily battle for court time.
So far, the Bucs have channeled that competitive drive in a positive manner. “We’re always coming in and always competing every single day,” Durban said. Durban, Shofner and Browne are all defen-sive players. Guenster, Smith, Splawn and Terrell are all hitters. Lopez and Bentley are setters. “Accountability is a really big thing for us,” Browne said. “It’s important that you’re doing your job off the court, too, and making sure that we’re having competitive practices.” That postseason success last year showed them what was possible, and Terrell said “we want that so bad” again this season. Hoover is aiming to advance out of Area 6, which includes Hillcrest, Oak Mountain, Thompson and Tuscaloosa County.
The North Super Regional in Huntsville would be followed by the state tournament in Birmingham in late October if things go according to plan. Durban recently committed to play col-lege volleyball at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Browne and Terrell have also declared their intentions to play in college but have not made their final decisions yet.
