The Homestead Girls Volleyball Team achieved not one but two tournament wins this season at the Germantown and Kettle Moraine tournaments.

When the weeks of the tournaments arrived, the girls practiced for five days that week for two hours every day. On weekends, they had to be ready to play by 8 a.m., with the bus departing from Homestead before sunrise for each tournament.

Despite staying at the school for over 12 hours, the team’s energy never faded and was maintained throughout the whole day. Every serve, dig, and swing reflected the team’s determination to compete for the win. The ladies worked together and pulled through to secure the wins.

Reese Lalonde, sophomore on the Homestead Girls Volleyball Team, said her favorite memory from the Kettle Moraine tournament was “playing against Muskego because the bench was getting excited; it was making me laugh, and it was a fun time.”

Head Coach Allegra Derzon said her favorite team to play against in the Germantown tournament was Hartford. The games with Hartford were close, both teams showing strong defense in the front and back row, and long rallies kept the scores tight.

“They played us pretty close in the first set, and then when we won, we dominated the second set. We got in their heads and proved they didn’t stand a chance,” Derzon said.

This showed the team’s resilience and confidence; instead of getting nervous after a close first set, the girls came together, adjusted, and kept playing their game.

Lauren Fitzgibben, junior on the team, acknowledged what she will miss the most about the team this season.

Fitzgibben said, “I will miss the people, especially the seniors. I have a lot of love for them, and they just make it so much more fun.”

Fitzgibben built strong connections with team members this season, especially the seniors. With five seniors graduating, six upcoming seniors, as well as three underclassmen, will return next year to continue adding on to these experiences season by season.