By THOMAS ST. MYER
tstmyer@muncie.gannett.com
YORKTOWN — The No. 1 symbolizes the seven Yorktown senior volleyball players.
One, as in the number of matches the girls won as sixth graders.
One, as in the number of matches they lost as eighth graders.
One, as in the number of their losses so far this season.
One, as in the number by their name in the Class 3A poll.
Out of all those ones, the one that stands out is the one win as sixth graders. Oddly enough, the girls beat Daleville without Bailey Barker, the one NCAA Division I commit (Drake) out of the seven seniors. She missed the match to grieve for the loss of her dog.
OK, so the one-win factoid loses some of its shock appeal when considering neither Laura Avila or Emmi MacIntyre played for the Tigers as sixth graders. Both enrolled at Yorktown as freshmen after previously attending St. Mary’s. But still, the word unfathomable pops to mind when contemplating a scenario where Barker, Hannah Cheatham, Ari Eaton, Jen Harris and Kayla Perry pair up together and win only one match.
Just how unfathomable? Consider this: The girls played club volleyball following their one-win campaign and within two years formed a county juggernaut, losing just once.

“In eighth grade, one of our proudest moments was we almost beat Yorktown,” Avila says. “First game was close. … Well, yeah, we lost.”
Her caveat triggers a laugh from her fellow seniors before practice Wednesday. For the next five minutes, the girls gab and giggle as they recall their rise in volleyball and the sisterhood that formed in the process.
“We all consider each other some of our best friends, so it’s easy for us to mesh together,” Harris says.
Their chemistry shines through as the girls speak at a rapid-fire pace, though with an intellect lost on some teenagers or adults for that matter.
“We’re talking 3.3 (grade-point averages) or better out of that group and probably even higher than that,” Yorktown coach Stephanie Bloom says. “They’re extremely intelligent, well respected by their classmates, well respected by the teachers. They’re just really likable kids.”
Bloom left out another accurate description — goofy.
Take a ride on the Yorktown school bus for a match and be prepared to hear the girls belt out show tunes, namely from Grease and Disney movies, at the top of their lungs.
“We’re not at all like seniors,” MacIntyre says. “We’re like little freshmen.”
Senses of humor wise? Sure, but their overall personalities and their play on the court put these seniors in rarefied air.
“They have great personalities, the other thing about this group, and it’s not just seniors, they’re just special,” Bloom says. “They really want to hang out together. It’s not like we have to make them get together and do team bonding. That senior class, especially, they’re just really close.”
As their five-minute gab-and-giggle fest wound down, the seniors pondered how to describe themselves in a few words.
“Determined.”
“Unified.”
“Close-knit.”
“Family.”
z Contact sports writer Thomas St. Myer at 213-5816.