With the last night of home games for varsity volleyball before district tournament and officially the last game for the JV team, Varsity won a close game against Somerset and the JV’s “Black Team” won against their “White Team”. The seniors Shravya Sareddy and Morgan Lind had a quick ceremony in the beginning of their game, celebrating them and appreciating everything they’ve done for the team throughout the years. They were given a sash and roses and led by their parents in the middle of the court. Both coaches, Coach Andres and Coach Mary, spoke their speeches about the seniors, leaving the seniors in tears and the crowd awing. 

Starting with the JV team that had one of the most “odd” nights/games of the year. The original plan was that another school was supposed to play JV and varsity but with only a few days’ notice though, the school canceled on Pines Charter which had the coach, Coach Andres, in a pickle. He could only find one school that wanted to play Pines charter, but the JV team for the opposing school was at a tournament at the time, with that school being Somerset. With no other choice and for the sake of Senior Night, Coach Andres chose Somerset as the school that would play against the varsity team of Pines Charter.  Leaving no one to play the JV team, Coach Andres thought of doing an incircle match, JV vs. JV. Coach split the JV team in half, naming one team “Black” and the other team “White”. With three sets, black team took the win in the first set with the score being 25-12,  White team taking the second set with the score 25-22, and the third set being won by the black team 15-13, making the black team win the game. The night for the JV team was unexpected but it was considerably fun. With one of the teammates playing for the “Black” team saying, “I was confused the whole entire night, and partially mad because the last game of the year would be against the same JV team, but at the end of the night I was laughing and having fun. It might’ve been because I won that night, but it truly was a good night.” With that being said, the JV team supported their Varsity throughout the entire night after such a “weird” turn of events. 

Now with the varsity team playing Somerset, with the starters being Siarah Bencosme, Danelli Mejia, Mya Ortiz, Sarah Schnell, Anaya Fink, and Morgan Lind. They went into the game headstrong and no eyes wavering, with a new person on their team Mya Rutherford, a 9th grader that played on JV and got moved up for the district tournament coming up. In the first set varsity tried their best to keep control over the game but kept getting tricked by the smart moves and angled hits from Somerset. The serves were another thing that varsity could not keep up with, with the main defensive slipping up and shanking the balls out of the court, causing confusion from the players, the final score for that set was 25-27, with the jags fighting to the last line, but again the miscommunication, to little communication really did affect the set. 

With the second set, the girls made a huge comeback, the players were more focused and determined to win the set for the team and more importantly the seniors. With a similar but different line up from the first set, they won the set with 25-18 with their main hitters Danelli Mejia, Sarah Schnell and Jessica McIntosh who completely dominated the court with their smart tactics and powerful hits, but let’s not excuse the defensive, Morgan Lind, Sabrina Rodriguez, and Alia Montero diving and picking up balls effortlessly. This change in motion and determination to win led the girls to win the second set, and the other sets following them. The third set being 25-21 and the fourth set being 25-23. The volleyball varsity team really showed up and showed out with the last home game of the season. Asking the player how they thought the team played throughout the year one of the players, Danelli Mejia said, “I do not think we achieved the potential we were supposed to or the potential I was expecting”, Danelli also said, “I do believe that individual players improved but as a team no improvement.” Sabrina Rodriguez said in the interview, “I think we could have done some things differently but I believe we are a very talented team with a lot of potential.”

More information about Senior night was that JV player Abriana Marte got asked to homecoming by Tyler Pujals, making the night even more amazing and exciting as it already was. After the game JV and varsity had a banquet to celebrate the seniors, with the food being from  Chipotle. For the girls, both JV and varsity, they had an amazing night, and we wish the Varsity girls good luck at the District Tournament, GO JAGS!!!!

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Natali Brito