GDS Women’s Varsity Volleyball Takes the Championship and Makes History

At September‘s Endless Summer Women’s Varsity Volleyball Tournament in Virginia Beach, GDS became the first team to hand 11-time Independent School League champion Flint Hill a match loss, taking down the Huskies in consecutive sets 25-23 and 25-21. 

Said Head Coach Brandon Weist of the win, “It was a shock. Of course, we know we have a great team. But that was fully unexpected.”

With the win came national recognition. Sports Illustrated ranked GDS #20 in the country for their Top 25 National Girls High School Volleyball Rankings, and The Washington Post ranked the team as the #1 volleyball team in its All-Met volleyball rankings for the first time in school history. 

The shock is perhaps because coming out on top in a battle with Flint Hill proved so lofty a goal for so long. But the Hoppers went undefeated through five matches en route to the tournament championship, and if you have watched their growth trajectory over time, the win seemed like a natural outcome.

“There was a time when we were in the lower division and had a decent team, but not at the competitive level we're at now,” said Brandon, “In 2015, we lost a quarterfinal match in the playoffs to Saint John's, and in one of the sets, we lost by a score of 25 to 1.” But then two years ago, the Hoppers won their first state championship and defeated Saint John's, a landmark he said that demonstrates the growth of their program.

That growth has been building slowly over time, along with GDS’s rivalry with Flint Hill. Between 2015 and 2017, the goals were more modest, “...to score ten points in a game before [Flint Hill] would score 25 [for instance],” Brandon said. “...[S]lowly we started scoring 12 points against them, then 15, then 20 points. And then the past couple of years we've been very close. This year we finally got it done.” 

At the Endless Summer tournament, the Hoppers were down four players, and several players were out of their usual positions. 

“We have a philosophy at our practice that I think helps a lot in situations like this,” said Brandon. “We never have our starters practice together on one side of the net against another group of players.” 

Brandon handed a lot of the success to this year’s senior captains Zoe Ryu ’25, Shiraz Benyousef ’25, and Jada Aksu ’25 for their competitive energy and for keeping the team focused and going for it. 

“It wasn't just this week. Every year, we've been working up to this moment. We try every year our hardest to beat them. And this year, of course, we knew there was going to be a lot of pressure,” said Shiraz, “But it was a full team effort, and I never felt our team being so close and having so much energy. It was really, really cool. Hopefully when we play them again in the actual season, we'll have our full lineup.”

Important upcoming matches include:

• Friday, September 27: The third annual Pack the House night vs. Our Lady of Good Counsel

• Thursday, October 17: The annual Dig Pink game vs Flint Hill. 

Brandon said all the players, families, and alumni, along with the athletic department, have put a lot of work into growing the program, and he’s super proud of the team: “It's really nice to see them getting the recognition they deserve.”

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