Homestead’s varsity girls volleyball team took on Cedarburg in its last conference matchup and senior night of the season, falling just short of the Bulldogs, 3-2, in a very close match on Tues, Oct. 13.

Despite losing the first two sets of the match, with scores of 25-23 and 25-20, in very close fights, the Highlanders fought back and won the next two sets of the match, 25-23 and 27-25, overcoming the 24-20 lead that the Bulldogs had on the Highlanders in the fourth set.

With the momentum on the Highlanders’ side, the Bulldogs stormed back in the fifth set, winning with a score of 15-9, and the match was theirs.

The girls were led by Alexis Silver, Allie Beckers, Allison Rowe and Mackenzie Looft, all seniors, on their very special night.

“I thought the game definitely could’ve gone our way, but sometimes it just doesn’t work out in your favor,” Silver said.

“The game was amazing tonight. The ones where we face a really tough team are my favorites,” Rowe said. “They challenge us as individuals to play hard and give it our all, and it also challenges our team to still play together even in the face of adversity.”

Although they came out of the match with a loss, the girls feel like they did many things very well during the match.

“I think what our team did the best was not giving up on games. Our win in the third game was huge, and the comeback from being down 20-24 to winning 27-25 in the fourth game really shows how hard we work, and how we don’t give up on the point and especially each other,” Rowe said.

“We were very good at being aggressive all the time and not being afraid to swing,” Silver said.

With these strengths from the match, the team also feels like they can keep improving by the time playoffs come.

“We definitely need to work on playing defense and blocking big hitters because those were some of our biggest downfalls,” Silver said.

Even though the team lost a hard-fought battle on its senior night, the girls still had a magical night.

“Senior Night was extremely special for me and every other senior. The other girls on the team really knew how to make us feel important,” Silver said.

Rowe agreed with Silver. “Senior Night was better than I ever could’ve imagined. Each of our non-senior teammates made us scrapbook pages and gave really sweet speeches about us before the game,” Rowe said. “It really was a night to show how far we’ve come and what an impact we’ve made from freshman to senior year. I’m never going to forget that.”

“Senior Night was amazing. I am so lucky to be on a team with the girls I am with; we are a very close team, and I thought we played our hearts out,” Beckers said. “When you’re facing a 6-foot-five girl on the other side of the net, it’s hard to shut her down.”

In spite of getting second place in conference, the Lady Highlanders feel that this match gave them lots of momentum that will help them throughout the rest of the season and hopefully take them far into the playoffs.

“This season has meant the world to me. This season is my last chance to play with some of my closest friends and keep improving before I go to college,” Silver said.

“This motivates us to win the conference tournament this Saturday and to hopefully play Cedarburg again. Our ultimate goal is to still make it to state,” Beckers said.

“We have a nice seed for playoffs that sets us up to play teams we have proven are beatable. If tonight showed anything, it is that we are a strong team and that we will not give up. We still have a lot of the season left, and this loss is only a jumping-off point to do so much more,” Rowe ended.

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Cassie Shaurette

The team does its pre-game chant to get ready for the start of the match.