Southington Girls Volleyball Craft Their Own Identity

Coach Heitz with the team CT DRONE SOURCE PHOTOS

While Southington girls volleyball is coming off of an impressive 23-2 campaign, this year’s squad isn’t resting on their laurels – they’re looking to craft their own identity.

But before they began their 2025 journey, the Blue Knights hit the books.

Specifically, The Soul of a Team by Tony Dungy. Last year, they read The Winner Within by Pat Riley; a year prior, The Hard Hat by Jon Gordon. For head coach Richard Heitz, Southington’s book tradition helps each team learn valuable knowledge for use beyond the court.

“It helps teach them how to come together as a team,” Heitz said. “It’s about the journey, not the destination. It’s about something bigger than yourself.”

Heitz knows that Southington will need more than a trip to the library to find continued success. Especially when the Blue Knights lost four lettermen from their 2024 squad. Many of the upperclassmen on this year’s team will be stepping into the limelight for the first time.

For the 2025 Blue Knights, figuring out what makes them different from every other Southington volleyball squad will be key. There are always going to be differences, as no team remains the same. How Southington embraces those changes will determine how their identity is formed.

“It has been a bit of a challenge trying to figure out what pieces go where to give us the strongest possible lineup at the start,” Heitz said. “I’ve never had a lineup at the end of the season that’s the same as the beginning. There have been a lot of interchangeables here. It’s been a work in progress to try and figure out what gives us the best version of ourselves right out of the gate.”

Southington’s New-look Roster

Southington will be led by a trio of senior captains in libero Paige Raines, outside hitter Alex Wagner and middle hitter Sehere Coma. Raines is entering her third year as a varsity starter, providing plenty of experience. Coma will be the Blue Knights’ primary middle hitter and a pivotal server while Wagner will compete for the OH2 role. All three will be crucial to helping Southington navigate through choppy waters. 

“Paige is going on her third year varsity, so she’s the only one there that has experienced the full breath of the last two years. She has more experience of the culture of the varsity level,” Heitz said. “Alex and Sehere both show leadership qualities as well. A lot of times they see the bigger picture. It’s going to be a process developing them as leaders, and that’s part of the whole program.”

The Blue Knights’ senior class also features Laura Esguerra, who is the team’s primary setter. After battling back from a November knee injury, Esguerra is returning to a role that saw her record 948 assists in 2024.

Heitz called senior Cameron Wallace, “the most versatile player on the team,” noting that she can play all over the court interchangeably. Camilla Garcia will be one of the team’s strongest servers and is looking to anchor the right side hitter position.

Outside of their seniors, Southington has a pair of returning juniors in middle hitter Meredith Barry and outside hitter Lily Eidukaityte. With starting experience under their belt, Heitz is expecting them to come back even stronger and more dominant in 2025. And that despite the fact that they already finished third and fifth on the team respectively in kills last season.

The full Southington girls volleyball roster features: seniors Paige Raines, Camilla Garcia, Cameron Wallace, Laura Esguerra, Alexander Wagner and Sehere Coma; juniors Grace Zehnder, Lauren Warych, Meredith Barry, Lily Eidukaityte and Angelica Stavidlo; and freshman Emme Steindl. Coach Heitz is joined by assistant coaches Kasia Kalinowski and Lindsey Witte.

Esguerra serving in front of Wagner and Barry against Farmington

Blue Knights Embracing Analytics

On August 30, Southington took part in a multi-team jamboree at Darien High School. It was an opportunity for the Blue Knights to learn about themselves before the season began.

There were some things Heitz already knew. Southington won’t be the tallest team on the court, which could be tricky in Class LL play. However, the Blue Knights make up for it with their ability to serve and pass. Southington has several different servers they can utilize against the opposition.

However, they must still figure out the order in which to use them. The Darien jamboree helped with that, since it allowed Heitz to see Southington in various different lineups. As players began getting more comfortable, he started to see the vision.

“We’ve got potential,” Heitz said. “We’re looking for lineups that work. In the middle of the day we seemed to find a lineup that worked pretty well for us. You’re talking about stuff that’s hard to measure sometimes, like chemistry. Sometimes something just works and you don’t know why. But it just does.”

As they go through their season, the Blue Knights will be relying on analytics to help determine performance. They use it as a “water line” for their goals, so that there is a measurable target to hit.

For example, Heitz wants his team’s pass rating to be 1.7. At Darien, they were sitting at 1.54, showing the head coach it’s an area that can be improved. At the same time, Southington proved their serving strength with a serve rating of 86.9. They had more aces than errors, with an overall 18 percent ace rate. Heitz was impressed with that aspect of Southington’s game.

But Darien was just a test; soon the games would count for real. Southington’s head coach entered the year looking for his team to keep growing. But he knew the challenge the Blue Knights faced was daunting.

“The biggest thing is constant improvement. We have a very tough schedule the first two or three weeks. We’re going to learn a lot about ourselves,” Heitz said. “Whatever happens, we can use that as a springboard to develop and understand what we need to improve. We just have to take them as they come. When you have a really good two years, you’re going to get bigger challenges on the scheduling front.”

Southington Opens 2025 Campaign

Southington opened the year with a 3-0 loss to Greenwich before earning their first win of the season in straight sets against South Windsor. With a victory under their belt, the Blue Knights entered the week of play looking to retain their momentum. But a trio of difficult battles awaited them.

They began the week with a straight set loss to RHAM away on September 8, 25-22, 25-22, 25-15. Wagner led the way with 10 kills and two blocks while Barry added seven blocks of her own. Esguerra registered 15 assists and six digs while Steindl put up 12 assists and a block.

Then, Southington traveled to Farmington on September 10, losing 3-1, 25-19, 25-13, 21-25, 25-22. Wagner again led the team with 12 kills while Garcia had 10 kills and three aces. Barry put up nine kills while Warych had six. Raines led the team with 12 digs, adding three assists while Steindl recorded a team-high 36 assists and eight digs.

Southington will return home on Friday, September 12 to try and improve their 1-3 record in a matchup against Bristol Eastern.

Southington Trying To Avoid ‘Thunderbolts’

While Riley’s The Winner Within wasn’t the book chosen for this season, it still plays a major role in how Southington manages their 2025 campaign. In the book Riley describes any unexpected setbacks or things beyond your control as ‘thunderbolts’. Heitz has now adapted that term to the Blue Knights.

Over his 24 years as head coach, Heitz has seen plenty of thunderbolts. He still remembers the time the film-covered mats from a taekwondo competition left the practice floor in the gym “like an ice-skating rink.” But even then, Southington found a way to adapt and hold their match the same night.

Maybe that exact scenario won’t repeat in 2025, but it’s the unexpected that Heitz wants the team to be prepared for. There is no room for excuses; the Blue Knights must be ready to weather any storm.

“You’re trying to teach them no excuses,” Heitz said. “This is part of the process of teaching growth and development in young individuals through sport. Don’t find excuses for everything, something good is going to come out of it. You just have to deal with it, you have to work through it. Your life is going to be full of challenges.”

To further emphasize that point, Heitz shared a video from Duke girls basketball head coach Kara Lawson. The message that resonated? When things get tough, you need to learn how to “handle hard better.” Whether on the court or in life, Heitz wants the team to understand how to overcome any obstacle.

If they’re able to do that, Southington will find its identity. Heitz hopes it includes scrappiness and a never-back-down attitude. He understands the path to success is long and that each step along the way is a journey. But if the Blue Knights are up for the challenge, they’ll succeed in their own way.

“Always up for the challenge, never back down, scrappy. Willing to when the times get tough or down, to fight back, be resilient and give their best effort overall,” Heitz said of what he hopes Southington’s identity looks like. “We’ve got a lot of tough games to start and we’re going to learn a lot about ourselves early on. We have to take what we learn and use that to our advantage.”

“It’s going to be a challenge, we’re trying to form our own identity,” he continued. “Not the identity of the team last year or the team two years ago. There’s some new faces and we’re just trying to figure it out.” 

Barry at the net

For more photography by CT Drone Source please visit their site.