Oakdale’s volleyball team is a force to be reckon with.  Even with such a young team of four seniors, two juniors, four sophomores, and two freshmen, they managed to achieve a record of 8-1.  

Oakdale had a tough schedule to start the season, opening against the previous 1A State Champions, Clearspring; 4A state finalists, Urbana and 2A State Champions, Williamsport.

Part of Oakdale’s strong program is due to the coaches.  The team is coached by Jim Dorsch, with assistant coaches Mary Wizbicki and Rob Hickson.  Dorsch has been with the program since the school opened, and coached at Governor Thomas Johnson High School for 12 years. Wizbicki has been coaching at Oakdale for 4 years.  And Hickson is new this year, after previously coaching at FCC.

All of the coaches agree that one of the things that makes this team stand out is its depth. “We have 12 good players, so therefore at practice we are working hard, all the time,” explained Dorsch.

Hickson  agrees; “We don’t have a huge drop off in position when we play 6 on 6 which makes it a very good challenging day at practice, every day,” he adds.  

Dorsch also acknowledges the fact that they are led by four, very talented seniors: outside hitters Jess Twilley and Jen Chomiak, middle hitter Cora Wasilko, and setter Sydney Katz.  All seniors note that, although they are saddened by the fact that this will be their last season in high school, they all believe that they have a very good chance of making it to states to go out with a bang.

The team is also successful due to its chemistry. During practice, everyone is laughing and having fun, as well as working hard.  “Everyone is super close,” says Kalia Espenlaub, a freshman. As far as being a younger at Varsity level team, she explains that “no one looks down on me, and everyone’s very understanding.”

While all are confident that they’ll go to states, they do understand that there are some challenges. Dorsch realizes that in order to play against the better teams, one challenge will be staying focused. Especially since the Lady Bears recently had a stretch of games where the competition wasn’t as great, it can be easy to sit back on their heels, instead of being proactive and working to get ready for the better competition, such as Smitheburg and Linganore.

The players are doing special events to try to get people to show out. An example of this is the Dig Pink game on Thursday, October 10, and Senior night on Monday, October 28. 

 At Dig Pink, fans are encouraged to show out in pink and support the team.  Prizes will be raffled off, and fans can participate in a serving game as well.

Everyone is working hard to make for an exciting season which is evident with their successful record.  The team encourages people to show out and support, as the lady bears are looking forward to a successful season.