Music is pumped through the speakers, barely outdone by the reverberating sound of balls hitting the floor. This is coupled with the screaching squeaks of sneakers and then silence. Nothing can be heard except the voice of head volleyball coach Shyrah Schisler as she instructs her team in the possibly last game day practice.

“We do the same thing every game day pretty much, so we go through rotations and serve receive because we knew Conway was going to be tough servers. So we had to focus a little bit more on that serve receive today,” Schisler said.

Har-Ber hosted the 7A state volleyball tournament this week and Schisler decided to take an interesting approach to the week and treat it like an away tournament.

“We like the road game, we have always been kind of like road warriors. Last year when we went to state we were road warriors (teams that play well on the road). I also think there is something really true about keeping team chemistry together,” Schisler said.

They keep chemistry by eating together and by doing team builders, and they call it their business trip to show how important and professional they have to be.

“We call it our business trip, we get our business trip stuff ready to go. We treat it as if we are on the road. We teambuild all the time, and I think like 24/7 it seems like,” Schisler said.

The team was excused from class Tuesday to Thursday, and senior Reigan Baskin describes what the team did this week instead of class as building unity.

“We practiced every morning. We did a bunch of team bonding, like we ate together. Basically everywhere we went we were together just to bond,” Baskin said.

Team chemistry is a really important thing to the volleyball team, and so is staying focused on winning state this year. Senior Khloe Tucker explains that they were able to do this by keeping their eyes on the goal of winning state.

“Honestly, we just kept our eyes on the prize. Took it one game at a time and practiced every morning, had the same drive as if it were a game and just played with heart,” Tucker said.

Har-Ber showed that heart in Hot Springs, keeping the sets close. They feel short though, losing three sets to one in the state championship on Saturday, October 29.