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Hubbard celebrates Senior Night with sweep
By Steve Wilaj
HUBBARD
A commemorative video for the five Hubbard volleyball seniors played on a big screen TV inside the Eagles gymnasium following Tuesday’s Senior Night sweep of Lakeview.
Captain Macey Sarisky looked over at the crowd of players and their families watching.
“We’ve been through a lot,” Sarisky said. “I can remember all the way back to eighth grade when we won the [All-American Conference] championship. And we’re still here together.”
With victories of 25-23, 25-14 and 27-25 against the Bulldogs, it was a bittersweet feeling for the five close-knit seniors of Sarisky, Caitlin O’Hara, Effie Starheim, Kiana Martinez and Michelle Peachock following their final home game.
“It’s weird to see it start to go and I hate to see it go. But I’m always going to remember all these good times,” Starheim said.
Sarisky said, “We have a great time on and off the court — we’re all friends in school, too. We knew it was going to be a competitive match tonight, so we had to bring it because it was our Senior Night.”
Lakeview did, indeed, make it competitive throughout, fighting back to tie the first game at 23. But Sarisky, who led Hubbard with 17 kills and 10 points, answered with a spike and a kill to close the contest.
“When you see it, you gotta go get it,” she said.
After a decisive game two victory, the Eagles (14-5, 10-2 AAC Red) once again found themselves tied with Lakeview (14-7, 7-5) late in the third game.
Knotted at 25, O’Hara collected a spike before Sarisky again closed it with a kill to complete the sweep.
Hubbard coach Jeremy Porter knew it would be a tough match considering all the emotions of Senior Night.
“I said to the seniors, just real basic, ‘Hey, this is your night. Take us to victory,’” he said. “Then they went out and played really well.
“It’s been a great time coaching them — they make it easy. They know what they’re doing out there and I really don’t have to say too much. They can probably play without me.”
O’Hara added 12 kills and four blocks and Martinez notched 27 digs to pace Hubbard, while sophomore Emily Krinos also had 39 assists and 10 points.
For Lakeview, Jensen Silbaugh led with 10 kills and 16 digs while Addie Becker had four blocks, Laney Lytle collected 16 assists and Carly Casassa tallied five points.
“We just lacked that momentum tonight that we usually have and it hurt us,” Bulldogs coach Caitlin Schnurrenberger said. “We did a good job of staying with them for the most part, but it just wasn’t enough to push us over the edge.”
Moving forward, Lakeview has one regular-season game remaining while Hubbard will compete in a tournament at Northwest High on Saturday to close its campaign before conference tournaments.
“We played as a team tonight and we wanted to win together,” Starheim said. “For tournaments, I think we need to bring that same intensity and drive in order to be successful.”