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10/14/2016 12:00 AMAmber Ciscone doesn’t get the glory of slamming the ball home on offense for the East Haven volleyball team. However, Amber is still an important member of the Yellowjackets whose defensive presence at the libero position keeps them in virtually every match.
“I personally think I’m very alert and good at what I do. My coaches taught me what to do and how to do it, so I strive in that,” says Amber. “My role is important because, without me passing to the setter, we can’t convert to offense. That’s how we earn our points and win.”
Amber started playing volleyball when she was in middle school and enjoyed the camaraderie in East Haven’s program. After playing some JV as a high school freshman, Amber began playing libero—a specialty defensive position—at the varsity level during her sophomore season. She then took over the full-time role as a junior last fall.
“I really like the family atmosphere. I feel like me and my teammates have a strong relationship on and off the court. I like how you’re always on the court with them, so it’s never a game where you’re by yourself,” Amber says. “In middle school, they had us play everywhere to see where your strengths and weaknesses would be just to get a sense of the sport and my strengths lined up with defense.”
After recording 343 serve receives and 302 digs last year, Amber has already tallied totals of 235 and 185, respectively, in those two categories through the Yellowjackets’ first 12 matches this season.
“It’s one of my biggest strengths. I get most of what I can up and I’m confident in myself to do that. I think my confidence gets me going. Without it, I can’t do the things I need to do,” says Amber. “My coach puts a lot of confidence in me. He’s always pushing me. Even when I make a mistake, he always reassures me that I can do it.”
East Haven’s head coach is Craig Brown, who credits Amber for getting his team moving. Brown emphasizes that the Easties need to win with defense, which ultimately generates chances on offense. When that process starts with Amber, Brown knows that his squad is in good shape.
“If she puts up a good ball, we have a good chance of winning with Kylie [Schlottman], Summer [Onorato], Julia [SanGiovanni], and Diana [Kalman] hitting. We just need to give them that opportunity. When the ball goes to Amber and she’s on, there’s no chance we’re going to lose,” says Brown. “She’s huge in what we do. Without her, there’s no chance to run the offense. We need her in serve receives and defense. When she touches the ball, we know we’re going to win because we know she’ll put up a good pass for us to play off of.”
Aside from being the libero, Amber is also one of the Yellowjackets’ captains this season. One of best things Amber does as a leader is to make sure that her teammates always stay positive.
“I was really excited to be captain because I worked hard for it. I like to be someone to look up to—not just in sports, but in life,” she says. “So far, I’ve learned that even when we have a bad game, we have to keep each other up. If we fall, we can’t come back, so my fellow captains and I try to pick people up who are down so we can come back.”
Amber contributed to last year’s team that won a share of the Oronoque Division and reached the Class M state semifinals. Now, she’s doing everything she can to help the Yellowjackets achieve the same level of success in 2016.
“We just try to stay confident. We lost a lot of starters, but we’re adjusting well to the change,” says Amber. “We still have confidence and I think we can make it just as far as we did last year.”