Madi Smith’17 serves the ball. Photo by Whitney Dankworth’17.

The girls volleyball team failed to make it past the first round of sectionals in the postseason tournament, halting its hopes of finally moving to the next round for the first time in the program’s history.

Despite this disappointment, the Vikings showed that they were a formidable opponent, fighting until the very last set on Wednesday, October 19, against the Newark Catholic Green Wave.

The match opened with the girls losing 4-25 against Newark Catholic, and spirits were down as the Vikings faced an opponent “tougher than any other team [they] had encountered that season,” said Kayla Podgurski’19.

In face of this first-set loss, the girls didn’t give up, proceeding to bring the second set’s score to a much closer 14-25 defeat. With this new momentum, Academy improved in the third set with a score of 16-25, proving that the Vikings would never stop fighting, no matter how difficult the challenge ahead of them.

Senior Madi Smith said, “We all fought every game—not just for ourselves—but for each other. Newark Catholic was a very talented team and, unfortunately, we couldn’t pull out the win. I can’t wait to see what the program will do in the future.”

Next season, the team will be counting on its underclassmen, whom Head coach Heather Gepper says “[have] stepped up to the plate in crucial times,” to make up for the loss of six seniors graduating this year.