SHS Girls Volleyball Look to Serve Something Special in 2026
“Winners fail, losers hide,” is a phrase written on one of the Southington high school girls volleyball team’s whiteboards. It serves as the Blue Knights’ guiding mantra, and a reminder of how head coach Richard Heitz wants his team to play.
Mistakes are going to happen. Heitz not only anticipates it, he welcomes those miscues. For a team to achieve their loftiest goals, the head coach acknowledges that sometimes you have to push the envelope. All members of the Blue Knights must be prepared to take risks and learn from any mistake, not dwell on it
“It’s okay to make mistakes,” Heitz said. “You have to make mistakes in order to get better. You have to make aggressive mistakes. If you try to play so you don’t make a mistake, you’re not going to be successful. It’s just the way the game is.”
“Some kids coming in have a hard time with that, it’s a challenge,” he continued. “Statistically, the team that makes the most aggressive mistakes in a match will win. When they’re not making a mistake, they’re dominating.”
While the Blue Knights graduated six lettermen, they also return six players who saw significant playing time in 2025. Also, Heitz has been serving as head coach for nearly three decades. Southington’s expectations have been made clear, and are understood by everyone around the program.
Entering their 2026 campaign, Heitz and company are looking to find a bit more consistency. While the Blue Knights stayed competitive in 2025, at times they fell short in tense moments. For Southington to return to their past heights, this year’s team must continue to mesh and learn how to play under pressure.
“We want to have a measured intensity, we don’t have the peaks and valleys that we had at times last year,” Heitz said. “You’ve got a bunch of different players and some haven’t played together. You’re trying to develop a team. We’re trying to learn about each other and connect. They’re good kids. So far they enjoy playing together.”
Southington Relying On Serve
When the Blue Knights step on the court, their serving ability is expected to draw the spotlight. Southington returned a litany of strong servers, and Heitz said he saw numerous Blue Knights drastically improve in that regard over the offseason. Now, the team is just trying to fine tune their serving approach in an effort to maximize their strength.
“We’re a very strong serving team,” Heitz said. “We’ve just got to find the happy medium between being aggressive and not causing errors. Serve receive passing, we’ve realized as a team we need to get a little higher quality of pass to be where we want to be. The analytics out there nowadays are pretty good. The stuff they feel on the court they can actually see on paper.”
As they prepare to serve, Southington is looking to take their opponent, “out of their system.” The Blue Knights don’t want them to find their rhythm or have any easy response to the attack. If they can consistently keep those opponents out of their system via the serve, Heitz is confident Southington will find success.
“To be successful, you’re trying to make the other team do things they don’t want to do,” Heitz said. “When you serve tough, they don’t get that first pass so they can’t run their middle hitter against you, which is the hardest to defend. They can’t run their system if you’re serving tough. You want to make the other team do things they’re uncomfortable with, makes your life a lot easier.”
In terms of standout servers, Heitz was quick to rattle of the names of four seniors, Meredith Barry, Grace Zehnder, Lauren Warych and Angelica Stavidlo. The head coach is expecting the quartet to lead the way in the serve department. Across the board though, Heitz has been impressed with the team’s ability to collectively develop their biggest strength.
Southington isn’t trying to send the ball over the net lackadaisically. They want to be strategic in how they serve. The Blue Knights know their point of attack could be lethal.
“Statistically, the worst thing you can do is miss a serve,” Heitz said. “The second worst thing you can do is just get the ball over. If you just get the ball over, the other team has an easy pass, they’re swinging, you’re playing defense. It’s a hard balance between the two.”
Blue Knights Off To Hot Start
Southington’s 2026 season started off with a 3-0 loss to Greenwich. However, the Blue Knights got back on track in a hurry and have won their last three games. They’ll take their 3-1 record into matchups against RHAM at home on September 23 and Glastonbury away on September 4.
In the opener, senior Lily Eidukaityte led the way with 10 kills while Barry and Warych contributed six and five respectively. Sophomore Emme Steindl put up 19 assists and six digs as Zehnder contributed 11 digs. The Blue Knights won a hard-fought battle in game two, knocking off Maloney 3-2: 22-25, 25-14, 25-23, 25-27, 17-15. Eidukaityte again led the team with 37 kills and two aces. Steindl had 60 assists, 12 digs and three blocks as Zehnder recorded 17 digs. Barry had 11 kills, Warych eight and Stavidlo five.
Southington began an official winning streak when they defeated Berlin 3-0: 25-17, 25-15, 25-16. Eidukaityte had 13 kills, eight digs and three aces while Barry had seven kills and five blocks. Warych put up six kills and two aces as Steindl notched 29 assists. The Blue Knights won their second-straight 3-0 victory over Farmington: 25-21, 25-20, 25-20. Eidukaityte (17 kills, five digs) and Barry (seven kills, three aces, three blocks) continued their hot streaks while Steindl had another massive showing with 34 blocks and six digs. Warych had six kills and three aces as Zehnder registered six digs.
Southington’s three-game win streak shows this team could battle through adversity after losing the opener. To keep winning, Heitz wants to see the Blue Knights continue to practice rigorously and stay determined to improve.
“You’re going to have to push yourself in practice,” Heitz said. “We have such good servers it makes it harder on our passers. We’re giving ourselves at times the best practice around. It’s like baseball in the spring, pitchers and catchers report. Pitchers always seem to have that advantage when spring training starts up. Right now our servers have the advantage over our passers. Got to get our passers to catch up a bit.”
Southington Roster Features Experience, Depth
With six lettermen graduated, the Blue Knights certainly have a different look on the court compared to their 2025 version. One key difference is that there are no team captains, a system Southington has used in the past. But the upperclassmen have fully grasped what it takes to succeed in the program while the underclassmen are itching to leave their mark.
In the senior class, Eidukaityte is a reigning All-Central Connecticut Conference selection, having led Southington with 232 kills. Heading into her final campaign, Heitz and the coaching staff encouraged the outside hitter to get physically stronger. Eidukaityte took that challenge head on and has succeeded, looking more physically dominant in 2026.
Barry was another All-Conference selection in 2025 after she led the team with a .398 hitting percentage and ranked second with 175 kills. Heitz called the senior already physically strong and sees her only bulking up further. He’s also excited for the advanced work she has put in with Steindl.
Warych ended her junior season with upward momentum and entered 2026 on a similar track. She is poised to work opposite Eidukaityte with Heitz expecting big results due to a rise in confidence. Zehnder is taking on the role of libero after Paige Raines’ graduation. While she’ll have plenty of expectations on her shoulders, the senior’s head coach thinks she’s more than up to the task.
Stavidlo was mainly a reserve in 2025 due to the players in front of her. But she stayed ready for when her name was called. Heitz was impressed with her improvement over the offseason and has high hopes for her ability all over the court.
At setter, Steindl will be holding down the fort. She gained plenty of experience playing the role as a freshman. The now sophomore has gained the trust of her team and will be tasked with setting up the offense.
Behind Steindl is sophomore Ryleigh Robinson, who made the leap from freshman to varsity volleyball. Beyond just the duo, Heinz sees plenty of talent at setter throughout the program. He’s hoping it creates a pipeline of talent.
“We have four setters on JV that are good players,” Heitz said. “We’ve never been this deep at the position. It's been kind of a challenge, but a good challenge.”
Alongside Robinson, sophomore Lila Caputo - who Heitz says has the highest vertical on the team - also made the leap from the freshman to varsity. She is among numerous underclassmen Heitz expects to make an impact.
“You had some underclassmen who were chomping at the bit, they were close,” the head coach said. “They understood the role at the time and are willing to step in. The starters that we had have certainly come back stronger.”
Outside of those already listed, Southington will be expecting juniors Alexa Garcia and Kaylee Miglietta to have feature roles. Heitz stated he could turn to the JV team for extra help at times. Ultimately, the Blue Knights want to field the team that gives them the greatest chance to win.
The 2026 Southington girls volleyball roster features seniors: Grace Zehnder, Lauren Warych, Meredith Barry, Lily Eidukaityte and Angelica Stavidlo; juniors: Kaylee Miglietta and Alexa Garcia; alongside sophomores: Emme Steindl, Ryleigh Robinson and Lila Caputo,
Coach Heitz is joined by assistant coaches: Lindsey White, Kasia Kalinowski and Julia Tinyszin.
Girls Volleyball Ready to Grow as One
Heitz has coached plenty of successful teams in his two decades plus with the Blue Knights, holding a career 431-128 record as head coach entering the season. As recently as 2023, Southington advanced to the finals of the Class LL State Tournament. The program is trying to reach those heights once more. Heitz is confident this year’s team will remain competitive throughout.
But however far girls volleyball goes, the head coach doesn’t want Southington’s growth to only come on the court. Being a member of the Blue Knights means more than just aces and digs. If Heitz sees each player strive to be the best version of themselves, Southington has succeeded.
“It’s education-based athletics,” Heitz said. “The whole reason I coach is to teach life skills through a common interest in the sport of volleyball. Ultimately, did they grow individually as people? Representing the community, learning how to be in a team construct. Your whole life you’re going to be in a team construct. That’s how you look at success.”
“We do things the right way,” he concluded. “If we touch the ball and it goes out of bounds, we fess up. Not every other team does that. If you work hard and play the right way, you’re going to generally like what you see on the scoreboard.”
