GLEN CARBON - Senior middle blocker Sophia Ivnik has shown great leadership and has also been a rallying point around the girls' volleyball team at Father McGivney Catholic High School during the 2022 season.
After two Gateway Metro Conference wins Sept. 27 over Centralia Christ Our Rock Lutheran and Sept. 29 over Maryville Christian, Ivnik has played well. having two service points for the season, with 62 kills, 95 blocks, 44 assists and seven digs in matches through the win over the Lions, helping the Griffins to a 14-8 record going into the final month of the season.
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She's also one of the team's leaders and hardest workers, helping to set the standard for the younger players to follow and a player the others rally around for leadership and strength.
For her efforts both on and off the court, Ivnik has been selected as a Byron Carlson Petri & Kalb Female Athlete of the Month.
Ivnik, who plays for head coach Jake Williams, was feeling very good after the sweep over COR on Sept. 27 and felt the Griffins played well that night.
"I'm feeling pretty good," Ivnik said during her post-match interview. "We've been working pretty hard to come out strong and play to our level and I think that we did that. I'm pretty proud of us."
The win over the Silver Stallions was very important, as it was a bounce-back match for McGivney after losing at Marquette Catholic on Sept. 22.
"Yes, I definitely agree with him," Ivnik said. "Last week was hard. We had a really great game on Tuesday (a win over Metro-East Lutheran) and didn't come out as strong on Thursday, but we came back and we're ready to take more games."
The mood on the Griffins has been very positive and upbeat so far this season and Ivnik works hard to help keep the mood upbeat and going in the right direction.
"It's been pretty positive," Ivnik said. "We've been working at it pretty hard to get the positive anywhere where it needs to be. But I think we've been improving a lot."
Ivnik feels her role on the team is one of the team's leaders, bringing the other player's spirits up and getting the Griffins to play together as a team.
"I definitely think I'm one of the leaders that people look up to," Ivnik said, "and try to bring the energy up for most of the players when it's hard and try to have us increase our volume and make us play as a team and a pretty big player on the court, in my opinion.
"I think we have some really, really good ups and some downs. But overall, I think everyone has to be in the middle, kind of."
As the season starts to wind down and the IHSA Class 1A playoff approach later in October and November, Ivnik thinks the Griffins will concentrate on playing their best volleyball possible and let the chips fall wherever they may.
"I think we're just going to try to keep playing our best," Ivnik said, "and keep growing from our experiences that we've played against and just keep going up from there."
As the postseason comes up, Ivnik feels that the Griffins are heading in the right direction, despite missing a key player in Aislin Hall, who's currently out with injury.
"With Aislin being out, it's been pretty hard," she said. "But I think this game showed that we're able to adapt to it and I think that we're going to try to keep our minds open and just play our hardest and whatever happens, happens."
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