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The varsity volleyball season came to an end on Oct. 30 at Wimberley High School with the Knights losing to the Kerrville Tivy Antlers in the bi-district playoffs, 25-20, 25-10, 25-20.

The playoff loss brought an end to an eventful season, filled with suspense and tension, highs and lows. Many thought this team would struggle this season, but the team had other ideas, earning a second-place district finish and returning to the state playoffs. 

In place of last year’s veteran unit, a senior-laden team, led by outside hitter Andrea Janss, a younger unit unit returned with less experience and lower expectations. 

Instead of letting those expectations define the team’s season, the team came very close to replicating the achievements of last year’s team, which won district and lost in the first round of the 5A state playoffs.

Senior Sophia Bastidas said that the transition from last season to this one required a lot of adjustments.

“I feel that everyone was a little on edge because we got a lot of seniors that left from the year before,” Bastidas said. “There were only about four returning varsity players. It’s kind of strange playing with new players; even though they’re in my grade, I know them but I haven’t played volleyball with them for the past three years, and I didn’t really know what to expect.”

 Junior Lindsey Wiley said that she believes the team worked hard to counteract the loss of the experienced players.

“I feel like we exceeded our expectations, since we lost quite a few really good seniors this year who had been on a while last year,” Wiley said. “We weren’t expecting to be as good as we were this year, but a lot of people stepped up and we improved a lot over the season.”

The team was able to adapt to working without their seniors as they now had new players who were able to work together and work hard to achieve as much as they did. One of these new players. Preslie Boswell, one of the two freshman on the team, was proud of their accomplishments this year.

“I knew playoffs were gonna be really tough, because it was playoffs and it’s all of Texas, but I knew that we were a good team, and I thought we played very well together,” Boswell said.

These newer players on varsity were able to combine with the returning players to take down most of their district opponents.  The team lost twice to undefeated district champion Austin High and lost two tough five-set matches to Ann Richards, but lost only one other district match.

The consistent play throughout the district season enabled the team to place ahead of ARS for second place in the district.