Player Spotlight/Coastal/August 2013
Chandler Ewaldsen
Savannah Christian Prep School
Savannah, Georgia
Robert Preston Jr.
Hollis Stacy Award winner hopes to help Lady Raiders contend for state volleyball title.
When you take a look at Chandler Ewaldsen’s accomplishments, it’s hard to imagine that she still has a year left to add to her already impressive list. Ewaldsen, who is beginning her senior year at Savannah Christian, is an All-Region volleyball, basketball, and soccer player; she won the prestigious Holly Stacy Award in May, which is given to the most versatile female athlete in Savannah; she has been named MVP of her teams; and she is a fixture on Savannah Christian’s Honor Roll.
Last year, she helped lead the Lady Raiders volleyball team to a region championship and an appearance in the Final Four of the state tournament. When Ewaldsen began playing sports at the age of three, she had no idea that her career would become what it has. She started playing basketball and soccer because she enjoyed running around and competing. Then, when she was in the sixth grade, Savannah Christian began a middle school volleyball team. “I had two cousins in Texas that played volleyball. It always sounded [like] a fun sport to play. So I tried out for the middle school team,” she says.It didn’t take long for her to realize that she was a pretty good volleyball player. 
Three years later, Ewaldsen was one of two freshmen who made the Lady Raiders varsity team. That’s when she first thought that she might have a future in volleyball.Each year of the last three years, the Lady Raiders have made steady improvements on the court. During Ewaldsen’s freshman season, they made the playoffs but lost in the first round. A year later, they made it to the second round of the state tournament.
In 2012, Savannah Christian won the region championship by defeating rival Savannah Country Day then went all the way to the Final Four. An outside hitter, Ewaldsen recorded 311 kills, 93 aces, and 292 digs as a junior. Despite the level of play exhibited by her and her teammates, she was uncertain that they would win the region until they tallied the final point of the season. “We knew it would be a big task to win reagion. I remember the feeling in the gym before the region championship. We were focused on working together as a team. We were also at their place, which made [it] even more awesome,” says Ewaldsen.Even though the Lady Raiders experienced an excellent season in 2012, you can detect a little disappointment in her voice when she describes the postseason. Ewaldsen knows her team had the talent to win a state title, and the competitive fire that motivates her every day to give her best won’t let her forget about it. This year, she feels as though she has some unfinished business on the court, and Ewaldsen would like to end her high school volleyball career with another region title and a state championship. The Lady Raiders have a chance to do both – they return nearly everyone from last year’s team, and the eight seniors have all been playing together since they were in sixth grade. They are friends, they have chemistry, and they have a purpose. And that makes them formidable.As important as volleyball is to Ewaldsen, when volleyball season ends, she will only be a third of the way through her senior athletic campaign. She will still have basketball and soccer to go. Last basketball season, Ewaldsen scored 400 points and grabbed 212 rebounds for a Lady Raiders team that, unfortunately, didn’t make the playoffs. This year, she hopes Savannah Christian can return to the postseason and maybe a make run through the playoffs. “We’ve only got three seniors this year but we’re a really close team. I hope we can make the playoffs. If you can do that, you never know what will happen,” she says.In the 2013 soccer season, the Lady Raiders finished third in the region and made the playoffs with a new head coach. Ewaldsen scored 10 goals and recorded 12 assists as a center midfielder. “We had a good team last year but we lost a lot of close games.”
Her goals for the 2014 season are similar to what she would like to accomplish in her other sports: for her team to do their best, get in the postseason, and hopefully make some noise in the state tournament.Sports have played an enormous role in Ewaldsen’s life, but she has done much more than simply move from one season to the next during her high school years. She is also a dedicated student whose name, it seems, is permanently etched on Savannah Christian’s Honor Roll. She places a strong emphasis on her Christian faith and allows that to guide her in every aspect of her life. Ewaldsen begins and ends each day with a devotion. In between, she fits in school, two and a half hours of practice, and homework/school projects. Maintaining such a schedule is simply a matter of time management and an understanding that no matter how important athletics is, school always comes first. “I have always wanted to be the best at everything I do – in the classroom or on the field. I strive to be a good Christian example to
peers and my teammates,” she says.
During her career, Chandler Ewaldsen has won a host of awards, including All-Region in volleyball, basketball and soccer, and she was named Volleyball Player of the Year by the Savannah Morning News. Her most significant honor is the Hollis Stacy Award, which is given each year to the most versatile female athlete in Savannah. Hollis Stacy is a former member of the LPGA Tour who grew up in Savannah. She won several tournaments on the LPGA, including four majors, and is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame. The award that bears her name is one of the most prestigious awards a female athlete in the Savannah area can win.Favorites:• Subjects: Math, science, and Spanish
• Sport to watch on TV: Football, basketball, and volleyball
• College team: Georgia Bulldogs
• Player: Brittany Northcutt, a member of the UGA volleyball team
• Musician: Luke Bryan
• Person to meet: Kerri Walsh Jennings, a professional beach volleyball player
• Sport you wish you could play: Golf
• Superpower: Flying
