On Nov. 8, the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse volleyball team battled against the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Blugolds in their last game of the season. They also celebrated senior night with their four graduating players after the game.
Before the game, The Racquet Press caught up with fourth-year student and setter Jackie Oetterer to ask about her thoughts going into the final game of her career.
“It’s the last time I’m ever going to put on the jersey and play the game I love with my friends so no matter what, win or lose, I just want to have fun and be around the people I love,” Oetterer said.
The game started with a four-point Blugolds lead; the Eagles were able to pull ahead to 18-17, however, the Blugolds didn’t give up the lead for long. The final score was 19-25 with Eau Claire taking the first set.
The Blugolds leapt to another quick lead in the beginning of the second set. At 4-10 the tides turned and the Eagles began to chip away at their deficit. Within the next 11 points UWL tightened the score to 12-13. Just as UWL was catching up, Eau Claire players Elli Amjadi and Ella Kiebel both went on serving runs to bring the score to 15-24.
With the Blugolds one point away from another set win, Oetterer went on a nine-point serving run. Tying the score at 24-24, the Eagles and Blugolds battled to win the second set. The set ended 25-27 with another Blugolds win.
The Eagles were unable to carry their momentum into the third set and again found themselves trailing 4-10. Once again, the Eagles fought back to close the deficit 11-13; however, the two point gap was the closest they got to catching up to the Blugolds. Eau Claire kept a healthy lead against UWL until the final score of 20-25.
Eau Claire walked away with yet another conference win increasing their conference record to 4-3. With the loss, the Eagle’s final record sits at 6-24 and 0-7 in conference play.
After the game UWL celebrated third-year Ella Luoma, fourth-year Oetterer, fourth-year Justine Bastyr and sixth-year Gabby Johnson as they will all be graduating in the upcoming spring semester.
The players stood with their families as they received heart-felt speeches from their teammates. Coaches Deb Sazama and Victoria McCarty gave gifts of flowers and other UWL memorabilia to commemorate the players’ time in the program.
Afterwards, both players and parents took photos with the graduating class. The team followed up the ceremony with cake and food at Eagles Nest, a UWL volleyball end-of-season tradition.
“I know it is time and I’m ready to move on and do other things but at the same time being done on a random Friday after playing for 15 years is sad,” Bastyr said.
While the graduating players are reluctant to leave and disappointed in the season’s statistics, they look back at their time in the program fondly.
“The season didn’t go great in terms of wins and losses but we did so many good things throughout the season that regardless or not if we were winning, I’m extremely proud of what we’ve done,” Johnson said.
