Players pressured, prosperous on court

    The final home game for varsity girls volleyball ended with a loss but it was memorable according to those on the team. The night of October 24 featured tributes to senior players who would participate in their last home game ever at the Hawks Nest. 

      On the home side, the student section was filled to the top row with students cheering on the Hawks against Fallston. The rival team and North Harford were cheering back and forth for their school. Junior Dani Becker believes, “The large crowd would normally help but for a game this important the crowd came with both advantages and disadvantages…”

     The rival game happened to be senior night and a televised game. Becker describes the game as “nerve racking having the pressure of the students, families and cameras all watching us.” Sophomore Morgan Buckland knew the varsity team wanted to “impress all their fans for their big game.” 

     “Many emotions were surrounding the court during the third set,” according to junior Emily Green. She adds “the game caused a sense of stress and excitement at the same time…” due to watching her senior friends play for the last time. 

     To prepare for senior night, the underclassmen came together and made posters to commemorate the seniors. Sarah Nevin explains “making posters is one of the team favorites, besides the sport.”

     As tradition, seniors pick a restaurant where they have a team dinner to conclude the season. The “Last Supper” this year was at Chopstix. Senior Jordan Tidey explains the dinner “is a great way to bring the team together for a last hurrah!”

     Playing her first season of volleyball during her last year of high school, Natasha Sherinsky describes senior night tributes to be “bittersweet.” She was glad she got to “make new friends during the season but was upset the era was coming to an end.” 

     While reflecting on the past four years of playing high school volleyball, Elizabeth Quigg was “hit with realization of “The game I’m about to play is my last time on the court.” When given one word to describe their emotions about senior night, every senior described it to be “emotional.” 

     Sherinsky added “It was heartbreak that we lost but the team still fought our hardest.”  Quigg concluded that “playing Fallston motivated both JV and varsity to play their hardest to attempt to score a big win for the Hawks.”