On Thursday, Sept. 19 the varsity volleyball team suffered a tough loss against the Panthers. This was the biggest match this season with Le-Win being the toughest in the conference, this was considered a determining match to see who would win the conference. 

Both matches were really close for the Pirates with ending scores of 22-25 and 25-27. The Pirates fought hard but couldn’t get enough momentum to take down the Panthers. Senior Sami Wasmund said, “it was a tough game for sure, it was a hard loss but we can learn from it and play our game when it matters the most in regionals/sectionals, whenever we see them next. We had a game plan but had an off night and just couldn’t execute it.” 

The Pirates fought hard and did everything they could to and held their ground against the Panthers. Maggie Furlong ‘22 and Mackenzie Muehleip ’20 led the Pirates with four kills each and following closely behind them was McKenna Curran ‘20 with three. “We had a rough night as a team and we are continuing to work hard to be playing our best by the end of the season,” said Furlong. Assisting with these kills Gracie Wubben ‘20 led the Pirates with an impressive amount of assists, of 12 kills by her teammates Wubben assisted nine of them. 

On the defensive end Curran held her ground with 16 digs and Furlong followed close behind her with 14. “I was nervous yet excited to play Lena for a few weeks before the game. There is a rivalry between us and Lena for volleyball so I knew it would be a tough game,” said Curran, “I knew that defense was very important with Lena’s strong offense. I told myself before the game started that I wasn’t going to let a single ball drop near me. I played every point like it was game point. Passes are very important against a good team so you can run the offense. I wanted to make my passes the best I could so that we could get hits on the ball.” 

The Pirates play again on Tuesday, September 24 at Scales Mound.