Comets battle, fall one game shy of state tournament bid

Comets battle, fall one game shy of state tournament bid

Sindlinger: This season, we’ve stressed staying together

NASHUA — Teary eyes, hugs, laughs and smiles exited the locker room at Nashua-Plainfield High School on Tuesday night after the Comets final, 3-1 loss to Waverly-Shell Rock.

For the four seniors, it meant the end of their high school volleyball career. For others, it was an end to months of grueling practices, joyful bus rides, long weekend tournaments and another step closer to change.

But for senior Jamie Sindlinger, unphased that this was the end for her Comet career, she said it all just hadn’t hit her yet.

“This whole season, we stressed staying together,” Sindlinger said. “It’s weird I haven’t started bawling yet because it’s over. It will hit me…I’m just not for crying in front of people.”

The Comets struggled to find offensive pressure against the Go-Hawks, who earned their ninth state tournament bid in school history Tuesday night. A small run toward the end of the second set gave the Comets hope, bringing the match score even, 1-1. But a relentless offensive attack by the Go-Hawks was too much for the Comets to bear, ending the 30-11 season.

Senior Shay Carolan made no excuses for the loss, but said it just wasn’t the same getting to play with the same full, healthy team that beat Waverly-Shell Rock earlier this year in a weekend tournament.

“The first game we played against Waverly we won when we were out with the full team,” Carolan said. “Then, the next two, we were defeated.

“And even this game, with Katie [Foster] back, she wasn’t able to play her front row. But we played through that pretty well. We just played with team unity and gave it all we had.”

Foster had been out for the past two weeks with a knee injury she suffered during warmups just before the Comets’ match against Decorah in the Northeast Iowa Conference tournament in October.

Foster, who rested her knee in the first round of regionals, was back with a knee brace playing in the back row for the Comets’ match Tuesday night.

Although she was not favoring the knee during the match, the Comets’ second leading kills scoring in Foster was lost.

Head coach Sue Hoefer praised throughout the end of the regular season and after last week’s win against Ballard, that many girls have stepped up into a crucial role at a critical time and handled the adversity well.

Hoefer also noted that although Tuesday night’s loss meant the end of the season, the girls would eventually come around to recognize the goals and fun the team had accomplished throughout the season, rather than dwelling on the final loss that took them out of a state tournament bid for a fourth consecutive year.

“The only time you’re going to be happy at the end of a season is if you win state,” Hoefer said. “There are only going to be five teams that walk off the court this year and feel good about what happened.”

In a whirlwind season that was accompanied with a home tournament win, an 11-win streak, hindering injuries and a conference runner-up title in the regular season and tournament play, the Comets played through the adversity, the fun, the ups and downs, giving Hoefer reason to have confidence and pride in what her team accomplished this season.

“We told the girls we were so proud of how they went out there,” Hoefer said. “And anybody who was at this game and saw some of these vollies and girls hitting the ground, making sure their season wasn’t ending…It’s nights like tonight that make some of those vollies go long.

“Because nobody wants to have their season end.”

By Stephen Koenigsfeld sports@charlescitypress.com