Bair, seniors to participate in final games as Wildcats

Saturday, Nov. 21 marks the end of the season for the Weber State University Volleyball Team and, for five girls, the end of their career as Wildcats. The ’Cats will play the University of Montana Friday, Nov. 11 and Montana State University Saturday. Head Coach Al Givens said he hopes the players can come out of the weekend with two wins.
“We have our last two matches of our season; this will be the last two seasons of our seniors’ career,” Givens said. “It would be nice to send out our seniors on a winning note, not only for them but for the program and because they’re great people aside from their volleyball skills. It’s a great group and you always remember your last couple so we want them to go out on a winning note.”
Saturday is slated to be senior night where all of the seniors will be recognized individually for their accomplishments over their careers at WSU. Givens said he has enjoyed having the seniors on his team over the past five years.
“They’ve all been here together, this is their fourth year together, and they’ve been the reason we’ve been successful in the years past,” Givens said. “They’ve had excellent careers and they’re all going to graduate. I’m sure it came faster than they wanted it to, it’s coming to an end and I think it’s coming faster than anyone would have thought it would go.”
When asked about senior Chelsea Bair, Givens said she is the team’s most experienced player.
“This is her fifth season, she redshirted her freshman year. She’s been here the longest, and had an opportunity to help the program be successful. Obviously, this year not making it to the conference tournament was disappointing, but for the last four years, we’ve been able to make it to the tournament. We ask her to do a lot for us, we ask her to pass and play defense and take a lot of swings. Because of her all-around game she’s able to shoulder a lot of those duties.”
Senior Amy Fackrell also commented on Bair.
“You don’t want to be on the other end of one of her spikes, that’s for sure,” Fackrell said. “I think we’ve all taken a hit to either the face or the stomach or something. She freakin’ hits the ball hard. She’s a great competitor and she’s hilarious, but I guess I could say that about everyone on the team. We’re always laughing at each other.”
Fackrell went on to say something about the rest of the seniors.
“I lived with Caitlyn for three and a half years, so she became my best friend right off the bat freshman year because we were the only true freshmen. She’s probably one of the best players in the whole conference; she’s just all-around so good. She can play every position and she’s really good at every position. I’m just amazed at what she does on the court constantly. She’s a really funny girl and always stands up for herself. She’s a really strong person. Jocilyn has a ton of spunk. She’s always making people laugh. But yeah, she has a lot of spunk, that’s a good description. (Jenna Leggat)’s a total natural leader. She makes everyone around her better because of her attitude and work ethic. She makes us want to be not just better volleyball players but better people; she’s always an example of kindness and service. You’ll never hear her say one bad thing about anybody.”
Givens also mentioned each of the seniors.
“Caitlyn Anderson has been a very solid player for us; we’ve played her in a variety of different roles, we’ve played her in libero, we’ve played her in outside hitter,” Givens said. “Same thing with Amy Fackrell, we’ve played her in the middle and lately here we’ve been playing her on the outside. We have Jenna; those four have been together for the past four years. Then we have Jocilyn, who’s been here for two years now, she came after playing two years at Snow College.”
Reiterating an earlier point, Givens again mentioned how he enjoyed having the athletes on his team.
“They’ve been a great group to work with; they’ve shown up even though the season hasn’t gone how people have wanted it to go. They’ve shown up and they’ve worked hard. Even at this point in the season, they haven’t mailed it in and they’re wanting to do well and they want to win. I appreciate that as their coach, they want to come and work every day.”
During her time on the volleyball team, Fackrell said there was a lot more to being on the team than just playing volleyball.
“We’re all really close, four out of the five of us have been here for the past four years together,” Fackrell said. “We’ve grown really close and it’s going to be hard to leave that. We’re all going to miss each other. I think we’re going to miss each other more than we miss volleyball. We’ve gained a lot of close friendships out of this. This past week of practice has been really fun. We’ve been working really hard but we’ve also been trying to cherish our last week of practice. There has been a lot of laughs. We’re just going to miss each other a lot.”