The Galena Varsity Volleyball Team headed to Chicago to play in the Chicago Latin Tournament on Friday, October 5 and Saturday, October 6. They went into the tournament with the mindset of getting better and trying to win, but they only got to fulfill one of their goals.

Six teams attended the tournament, including the Pirates, and they were all very talented. The Pirates started the tournament with a win, in two sets, against Jones College Prep. McKenna Curran ‘20 said, “It was really cool to start the tournament with a win, and beating a good school is always fun!”

That same night, they played Regina Dominican High School. That was a tight game for the Pirates, as it got pushed to three sets. Morgan Wills got hurt during that game and found out that she wouldn’t be playing all day Saturday. “I was worried because I didn’t want it to be serious, so I tried to walk it off,” said Wills ‘19. “But I realized that resting it would be best since we have big games this week.” They left the gym Friday night with one win, and their first loss all season.

The next morning they headed back to Latin School of Chicago to play the home team, the Latin Lady Romans. They played very hard but with an injured player, and a new line-up, they unfortunately couldn’t get a win.

Directly following that game, they played Montini Catholic High School, and again had a very tough match. Montini defeated the Pirates in two sets. “Both of those teams were very good, and it was good for us to play good teams like that,” said Lizzy Eaton ‘20.

The Lady Pirates played their final game on Saturday was against Le-Win High School, a team in their own conference. They also happen to be the team the Pirates need to beat on Thursday, October 11, for the conference title.

The Pirates defeated the Panthers in the first set, and then got beat in the second to push the game to three sets. The whole third game, they were neck and neck but the Panthers pulled through and beat the Pirates. “It was hard to lose a game that we had been wanting to win for so long,” said Sami Wasmund ‘20. “But when Morgan is back on Thursday, we will have our best line-up on the court, and should be able to come home with the conference title.”

The Pirates headed home on Sunday with one win and four losses.“Even though this tournament didn’t end the way we hoped,” said Sophia Heisler ‘19. “We learned a lot of things from these big teams that we need to get better at so we are ready for postseason play.”

The Pirates play at Le-Win High School on Thursday October 11, and play in another big tournament in Champaign, on Saturday October 13th.