Coming straight from an intense practice session, Anushka Dayal, captain of the girls’ volleyball team, spoke to the BOSM English Press about the team, the sport and the fest. Anushka’s love for the game was evident after she mentioned that she has been playing the sport since 6th grade and has played in zonal and district tournaments. She re-joined the team in her second semester after having quit initially because of academic constraints. She now feels secure in her ability to manage her hectic training schedule along with her academics and club activities.

The composition of the team is quite varied this year, with one fresher and one ME student part of the playing six. The team is planning to go with a 4-2 combination, where 4 players are on defence and 2 players will be boosters. The role of the boosters is to set up the shot so that the attacker can spike the ball across the net. The team can make contact with the ball up to 3 times, although no single player can touch it consecutively. Common fouls include touching the ball twice and ‘catching the ball’.

The coach, who has trained national-level players in Rajasthan, has been working with the team since the last week of August. The evening practice sessions started around mid-August, and the morning sessions started a week later. The team now trains for a total of 4-5 hours per day. While the morning sessions include fitness and endurance training, the evening is completely devoted to practice on the court.

Apart from BOSM,the team usually competes in one outstation event every even semester. Last semester, they participated in Sangram, the IIT Roorkee sports fest, and came fourth. Despite changes in the line-up every year, the IIT Delhi team and the Indraprastha College team (winners of BOSM ‘17) are considered to be top competitors. Anushka believes that since these teams train throughout the year, they have an edge over most college teams.

Although she doesn’t follow the sport closely, Anushka is always looking for ways to improve her game. Having been the captain for almost a month now, she says that managing the team is an entirely different game altogether. She feels that the CoSSAc has been very accommodating, ensuring that everything runs smoothly for the team.

When asked to comment about her expectations from the fest, Anushka replied that BOSM is the only fest where BITSians get to be performers instead of organisers. She encouraged all students to attend the games and cheer for their fellow BITSians.