How far can the ConVal girls’ volleyball team go this season? As far as the vibes can carry them.

The Cougars are one team that thrives on their own energy, dancing, exchanging secret handshakes and shouting out their signature celebrations after every point and game.

“If vibes are off, even in just one person, it catches like wildfire,” junior co-captain Ivy Armstrong-McEvoy said after Wednesday’s sweep of visiting Fall Mountain. “It is so, so important to us that we just stay upbeat and keep the fire fueled and keep it going.”

ConVal had one of the best seasons in program history last fall, finishing the regular schedule at 13-3 and advancing to the Division II quarterfinals for the second straight year. But the Cougars will be the first to tell you that their program-best record was inflated by a below-average schedule that left them underprepared for the rigors of the postseason, where they lost to lower-seeded Campbell. This year, head coach Amanda Hinton said, will be a little different.

“I think that we can go far,” Hinton said Wednesday. “I do think we can go far. I think our schedule got a lot harder this year, and that’s only going to make us better. We might not have the same record that we had last year, but in the end, playing more of those top teams is going to get us really prepared.”

The Cougars started this season the same way the last one ended, with a five-set loss to Campbell, but after sweeps of Manchester West and Fall Mountain, ConVal’s headed in the right direction – in Armstrong-McEvoy’s opinion, that direction is up.

“We really want to try to put a banner in our gym because that would make all of us so happy,” Armstrong-McEvoy said.

There weren’t many flaws in ConVal’s approach Wednesday night against Fall Mountain, especially in the first and third games, where the Cougars easily dispatched the Wildcats, 25-10 and 25-11. It was only in the middle set where the Cougars briefly lost their edge, falling behind as far as 20-15 before battling back for a 26-24 win.

”We were rolling, we were on fire and we were just all energy on the first set,” Armstrong-McEvoy said. “Then in the second set, we kind of started to slip up a bit, but we realized who wanted it more and it was us. So we decided we needed to come out on top, lock in and just put the ball in, because that’s the most important thing in volleyball is getting the ball in. Other teams will make their mistakes. You have to have 75 mistakes to win a game. So that’s one thing we focus on. And then the third set, we were just like, ‘Let’s go. That was not okay.’ And then we just steamrolled right on over them.”

The junior captain led her Cougar team with 10 kills, three aces, four digs, and two blocks. Fiery junior Ashlynn Williams added five aces and four kills; junior captain Zadie Marshall contributed six assists and four aces, and senior captain Brynn Frosch had four kills.

ConVal has a strong group of seniors and juniors, and some underclassmen from last year’s excellent JV team that are making their way into the rotation, like Ava Van Horn (nine assists), Piper Bernier and Emily Simard (three aces, two kills).

It’s a well-rounded squad, and how well they work as a unit will determine just how far they can go this season.

“We’re all a team,” Armstrong-McEvoy said. “There’s no ‘I’ in ‘team.’ Everyone needs to be on the same page. All the energy needs to be going. And when we’re all in it together, that’s how we win.”

ConVal (2-1) has a road match at Coe-Brown on Friday.