BISMARCK, N.D. — After an up and down start to the 2023 season, the Legacy Sabers are hitting their stride with wins over ranked opponents in Century and Jamestown.

“Volleyball takes everybody doing their job and doing their part and coming together,” head coach Jennifer Astle says. “And, you know, when you have nights like that where everyone does just kind of shows them and it still gives them something to be hungry about. So I think it’s definitely something that is going to propel them to come into the gym every day and keep working away.”

For this Sabers team, a group of eight seniors who have shared the court together for a long time, have adopted leadership roles.

“Us seniors, we’ve all been friends for a long time,” senior Reese Duchsherer says. “We have a good chemistry as a team. We all get along. We all know what each other need.”

“One of their strengths is they know each other pretty well,” Astle adds. “They’ve they’ve been with each other and played with each other long enough that, you know, it’s some of those things that maybe it can cause disruption or hard feelings just don’t necessarily happen as much.”

By adopting a team motto of all-in this season, Legacy is focusing on being locked in for each day of practice and every match.

“It’s been a very essential slogan because every time something’s not going your way,” junior Brooklyn Felchle says. “‘Hey, are you all in?’ We knew what we wanted to get done. We have goals for the end of the season for each game. Individually, you set each point and every single one of them knows that goal. I know that goal.”

The focus from the athletes has not gone unnoticed by the coaches, who applaud the attitude and motivation.

“They really do bring that,” Astle says. “It’s really nice because if somebody doesn’t seem to be kind of all in like maybe they’re thinking about their homework or their boyfriend or whatever, they just quickly kind of hold each other accountable to that and kind of remind them, hey, this is our goal. This is what we want to do. This is where we want to be.”