On Friday, Sept. 27, the Kimberly girl's varsity volleyball team played a home game against one of the top teams in the state in Sugar-Salem. It was a thrilling match that went the distance, with the Bulldogs coming out on top.
The Kimberly team started the first set with a big advantage of nine points. In a short amount of time, the rival team was able to catch up. Surprisingly, the Kimberly team was able to win the set.
"Our plan going into the match was to just keep high energy and just keep to the best of our abilities, and I think we did a pretty good job of executing it," said Emerson Heatwole.
The energy showed.
The second period was completely different. It was pretty short but intense.
"I think the biggest challenge we faced was keeping our energies high and staying mentally on the game, we struggled a bit there, but I think we managed to face it well," Emerson added.
The two teams showed high skill as the set was neck and neck till the end of the period. With a minimal difference, the Diggers were able to win.
During the third set, our team showed superiority. With incredible skill and excellent decisions, they held the advantage by far. However, at the end of the period, the rivals got close to achieving a comeback.
Shelby Heider from Kimberly High said, "I think we just need to focus on keeping our energies high so we don’t go down and we can stay going up."
With this attitude, despite the work of the other team, our team ended up winning.
The fourth set didn’t start as well as the other ones; now, the rivals had the advantage. The rivals played with incredible teamwork and a wonderful defense. The period was faster in comparison with the others and ended up with a win on the rival’s side.
In the last set, the rival team started taking a significant advantage, which was important for later in the match as our team caught up to them with 14 points. The team who got up by 2 would be the winner. After a big exchange of points, our team creates a difference of two points, making them the winner of the game and the match by 3-2.
When asked what was the biggest strength of the team during this match, Emerson stated, "I think one of the biggest strengths we had during this match was we executed when we needed to, when we were down, we came back, and we were able to fight."
keep up the fight Bulldogs!