volleyball school season wrap-up

Welp, we wrapped up the school season of volleyball with a banquet at our house last Thursday.

It was like a mini wedding reception I tell you! Luckily I didn’t have to do much except coordinate, people are so awesome and creative and good at making things nice.

But before we talk about that, let’s talk about the second half of the season (the first half is back HERE).

Because it was kind of an epic one for our school.

Our team made it to the semi-finals in a tremendous win at our first-ever quarterfinal appearance. It was one of those games where the excitement will go down in our own personal high school sports history books. Ha!

This girl learned so much this season from the coaches and the girls on the team, and the experiences she got to be a part of playing for JV and participating in Varsity as well.

…and she graciously put up with me taking some pictures of her near the end of the season 😉

There was a great photographer who took lots of pictures this season, (Donna Mundy) and these are from her:

And here’s Claire with some visitors who came to some of the games:

(Disappointed we didn’t get one with Dave’s sister Annie and her boys who were there to root her along too!)

This was our “cancer night” that the team moms put together so nicely:

They invited cancer survivors to be honored by the team:

…and had a pretty great game:

I love this picture I happened to catch of Claire. Kind of gives a glimpse of how much she loves the game:

And I love this one too because it gives another little glimpse at the bench and how hyped they always were.

I served on the booster club this year and I wish I had a picture of all the ladies I worked with who inspired me in so many ways. We had a bunch of things to do with fund raisers and hosting tournaments, etc. and it was great to work with these ladies.

I think it’s funny that one of the jobs we had was making a balloon arch. Because I’m pretty sure I’m not a balloon-arch type of a girl (not crafty like that), but gosh, I sure learned how they are done!

We used it for senior night. Gosh that was an emotional night for the girls. They all stood in an arch and hugged each of the seniors after they got announced.

And they were all crying because I have to say, these seniors pretty much rocked:

(Girls volleyball is so different from boys volleyball!)

Here are all the displays for each of the five girls:

Claire came home after the game that night with gifts all the seniors had given her (and the rest of the team as well). Seriously how sweet is that?

Used the balloon arch for the first-ever homecoming parade for our school too:

(That was a story in and of itself, I went to bring them the candy they were going to throw out for the students and got swept up in the parade in my car…stuck in between the cheerleaders and the marching band…thank heaven’s the cheer coach was able to direct everyone to help me get out before I became part of the parade. Ha!)

More pictures from Donna at one of the last games:

…the one where my parents and brother came to watch:

And then it was on to the state games.

They won the first one easy peasy in three sets.

But the second one (quarterfinals) was a fight to the bitter end. And the best fight ever, these girls worked so hard! Along with that great coaching staff.

Claire didn’t play, but you know, sometimes you need someone to rile you up:

…and give you birdie drinks, right?

She was a pretty great cheerleader!

Next three pics are from Donna…

We took the first game, they took the second, we took the third and they took the fourth.

Then in the fifth we were up 12-11 (the fifth set only goes to 15).

Then they tied it up at 12-12, and then passed us at 12-13, then 12-14. The other school was at match point and we were dying.

We pulled up to 13-14.

Then 14-15 (you have to win by two points).

Then 15 all. Yikes.

We made the next point and were at 16-15…one more point to win the game.

And we did it!

I LOVE this picture right after that point. Can you see the excitement?

We better zoom in on that one:

I think Claire deserves a little zoom-in action too:

Oh high school sports are fun.

So we were all hyped up for the semi-finals.

But I’ve got no jubilant pictures of that one. The outcome was a lot more jubilant for the other team (they were amazing!). But what a great season!

The banquet was a nice wrap-up.

Everyone chipped in to make it such a nice night.

I think they should have banquets at the beginning of the season rather than at the end, because that’s when you get to know all these great families you wish you had known better through the whole season. But loved gathering to celebrate a great year, and especially loved being with this girl of mine:

Coaches gave out awards:

We had a great slide show:

And that’s a wrap.

Now it’s straight on to club volleyball, and man, this one is giving me a run for my money! So many things in life pull in so many different directions and as a mother it’s so hard to know how much to guard your family time as well as to let your daughter grow. We still feel so new at all this but it’s been fun to think through it all with Claire and Dave (Dave is the best dad and helps so much with thoughts and advice to help Claire along…it fills me up to watch them). I love that it’s really in Claire’s hands and she is learning a lot making these decisions. Tryouts are this weekend so here we come!