Immediately after school, members of the TGS volleyball team piled into cars and set off for St Michael’s.  In their first and only tri-match of the season, the Kingfishers were playing Lowcountry and Elizabeth Ann Seton in the same night.  At 3:30, they pulled into the parking lot and got ready to play. “We can win this tonight,” Coach Neubauer told her team before they went inside.  “We almost beat Seton last time we played, and they’ve beaten Lowcountry. If we play as well as we did last time, we have a pretty good chance.”

There were unfortunate setbacks to the night’s events.  First, there was an unscheduled JV game that pushed back the tri-match by almost an hour.  Then, the games were each played 3 out of 5 sets, instead of 2 out of 3 that is typical for tri-matches.  Lowcountry and Seton played each other first, and it was nearly 7:00 by the time TGS stepped out onto the court.

They started out strong, but as the night went on, their energy began to wane.  Lowcountry won all three sets, although TGS was not far behind. By the time they played Seton, the Kingfishers were completely exhausted.  “Come on, guys!” Margaret encouraged her team. “We’re close! We can still win this!” But after co-captain Ryleigh was taken out of the game by illness, the team began to fall behind.  In the end, the Kingfishers left the gym in low spirits having lost every set they had played. Even though they didn’t win, it was good practice for their upcoming games and will be used as a learning experience.