Creek Speak | Page 23

SCHS Sports The End of the Road by Mera Heckrodt With eyes on the prize, the Silver Creek Volleyball team proudly marched toward the Denver Coliseum, where the volleyball State Championship was being held. After hosting their regional tournament and easily defeating their competition, the team was confident about their performance at State. Last year, the team was ranked 12th out of 12 teams, but this year after their dominating season they entered the tournament ranked 10th. With this obvious improvement, Silver Creek entered the tournament excited about all the possibilities that awaited them. Before the first game on Friday the 11th, Silver Creek formulated the goal to make it to the finals of the State Championship. The team never expected to win the whole tournament. Senior Mckenna Webster said they “were expecting to just leave everything out on the court, win or lose.” This determination was necessary because their first game was against top-ranked Cheyenne Mountain. As a team, they played their hearts out, but in the end they still lost. This devastating emotional rollercoaster was replayed on Saturday too. Silver Creek had dominated the regular season, so their losses at the State Championship were unexpected. When asked about the team’s performance, Amy Zens said, “When we got there, the nerves seemed to hit and just the atmosphere of the tournament got the best of us, so we didn’t do quite as well as we had hoped.” Although they didn’t have the ending they hoped for, the team left the Denver Coliseum in high spirits. Even though the State Championship didn’t meet their expectations, the team resoundingly agreed that their season was far from a disappointment. Between breaking school records left and right and making it to the selective State Championship, the Silver Creek Raptors are beyond proud of their season. Senior Taylor Merriman summed up the team’s feelings by saying, “I am super happy with the season as a whole. We really improved from last year, had an amazing record, and became one of the best teams in Colorado.” In addition to their physical accomplishments, the team was proud of how they bonded as a team and were able to rely on each other, on and off the court. To the Silver Creek volleyball team, this is the definition of a successful season.