Widefield girls volleyball overcomes emotions to get win on Senior Night

COLORADO SPRINGS – Senior night is tough. It’s the last hurrah for a group of athletes playing in front of home fans on a home court. And the pressure is there to win.

Like so many athletes in so many sports before them, Keara James, Emmalee Krieg and Grace Jensen had to experience the emotions that came with saying goodbye to Widefield and then the pressure of having to shake off those emotions and try to win their final home girls volleyball match with Harrison standing on the other side of the net.

They shook off a rough start and battled to a 25-27, 25-18, 25-13, 25-12 win in their final bow at Widefield High School.

“It was important,” James said. “We’ve been here all four years and it was our Senior Night. We had to finish our last home game well.”

From the start it looked like the Gladiators (9-13 overall, 1-4 Colorado Springs Metro South) were going to gain an early edge and cruise to a three-set win, but they couldn’t close out the Panthers. The focus that coach Allison Olney expected see throughout the night wasn’t all there early and it allowed the Panthers (5-15, 0-5) to take the first set.

“We were really hyped up,” Krieg said. “When we got those first couple points, we were doing well and just kind of let ourselves go. We got too comfortable.”

It took that first set to get that excess energy worked and the Gladiators were able to settle into their rhythm. Jensen went on the attack and finished the night with 13 kills, which put her over 100 on the season.

Krieg was slightly below average in her digs per set as she finished with right total on the night. But it was the leadership that really counted when it came from rebounding from that first set. Although it was frustrating to drop it, Olney had plenty of faith that her senior leaders would get the team back on track.

“I rely on them a lot because two of them are my captains,” she said. “If everyone sees that they’re not playing great and kind of messing around then nobody plays great and they all tend to mess around. If they’re focused and disciplined, I think the rest of the team sees that and they know they need to step up and play.”

That’s exactly what happened. The Gladiators won the second set 25-18, then increased their margin of victory in each of the final two sets of the match.

And as emotional as the end of the match could be, the seniors kept lifting up their teammates and pushing them to end it as fast as possible in order to get the win so they badly wanted.

When it was all over, they couldn’t help but think about their time playing for Widefield and what they’ll miss the most about the program.

“My friends,” Jensen said. “Yeah, they’re my team, but they’re really my friends. Inside of volleyball, outside of volleyball they really make it feel like a team. It’s fun to play that way.”