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Volleyball Loses on Senior Night

After Senior Night festivities, the Volleyball Lady Wildcats suffered a lost to an extremely talented St. Dominic Volleyball team Monday night.

Given the fantastic 17-4-4 record of the Crusaders Volleyball coming into the game, the talent they put on display in Westminster’s arena came as no surprise. Although the Cats have a very talented team of their own, led by Avery Engelmeyer and Madeline Williams, the St. Dominic team poses a dangerous threat for any team. The Crusaders are led by Senior Alaina Rothermich, who has dominated all her competition with 201 kills on the season, thanks in no small part to her setter, Allie Otten, who is in the top ten in the area, averaging over 10 assists per game.

The Wildcats had a short reception before the game to celebrate their 3 seniors (Elisabeth Sems, Sydney Bowden, and Erin Galakatos) last home game. Shortly following the ceremonies, the Wildcats won the first point of the game and seemed to be off to a hot start, but St. Dominic took a 3-2 lead and did not look back from there as they went on to win the first set 25- 11. While the score may show domination by St. Dominic, this was not quite the case, as the Wildcats had almost no offensive errors and even saw a couple of blocks from Junior Hilary Hightower against the talented St. Dominic offensive attack.

In the beginning of the second set, it seemed as though St. Dominic was once again looking to pull ahead and win the set by a large point difference as they took a 7-1 lead, but this lead led to Westminster’s biggest bright spot in the contest as they then went on a 7 point scoring streak of their own. The streak brought them an 8-7 lead and saw Madeline Williams record a couple of kills in tangent with her fellow Junior Avery Engelmeyer. Hightower was even able to block Alaina Rothermich once again as the Volleyball Cats took the lead against the talented Crusaders. However, the flash of brilliance was not able to last the entire set, as Dominic quickly regained the lead and Rothermich and Otten were able to find their stride once again. The Crusaders ended the match by putting the second set away by a score of 25-17.

The Wildcat Seniors were not able to come out on top in their final home game, but they all turned in respectable performances as Sydney Bowden was able to defend 15 serves and even recorded a kill in the game. In addition, Senior Erin Galakatos put up a kill and 2 digs, and Senior Captain Elisabeth Sems featured 2 kills, 5 serve receives, and a team leading 6 digs. These 3 had a major impact on the Volleyball program and will be missed by their teammates.

“The Seniors we have this year will be really missed next year because they bring a leadership and veteran quality to our team that we need,” said Junior Setter Jordan Haeusser, “They are also good role models for our team especially with two sophomores on the team they did a great job with that. They are people with amazing qualities, and they are people I look up too.”

While the Wildcats did not have their best performance in their final home game of the season, they are setting their sights on the playoffs and are ready to make a memorable run.

“Our playoff run this year is going to be tough. We are in a very good district and play an opponent we know well in our first game,” said Haeusser, adding that, “We are confident we can beat them as long as we don’t get into our own heads and play like we are capable. Even though it has been an up and down season, I am confident we have the ability necessary to win a district title,” finished Haeusser.

The Lady Volleyball Cats begin their district run next Monday at Parkway West.