Lights Out, PACT!

PACT Panthers fight hard but don't quite win in an intense game against the Bulldogs

On Thursday, September 29, 2016, the PACT Panthers fight hard in an intense, close 5 games, but can’t quite pull out the win. Even with the home court advantage, the opponent Lester Prairie had an amazing outside hitter.

Our PACT volleyball team had a blackout game! They tried to get everyone that was in the stands, cheering for PACT, to wear black. On this team we have six seniors! Kailey Hagen, Sophie Hudson, Aislinn Parten, Grace Coughlin, Charity Rouser, and Jacque Davis. We also have Kailey Levin, Jaz Eckel, Carissa Oolman, Amariah Lee. The captains are Parten and Hudson.

This blackout game was played against Lester Prairie. Lester Prairie’s mascot is the Bulldogs. Lester Prairie is a K- 12 school. Lester Prairie has a cooperative sponsorship between them and Holy Trinity.

This was a home game on September 29. It was back and forth. Lester Prairie won the first game, PACT took control and won the second, then Lester Prairie came back and won the third, PACT fought hard to win the fourth. All of these games were played to 25. In a volleyball game, you have to win 3 out of 5. If you get to the fifth game, you play only to 15.

The fifth game was going on, it was us, it was them, and then they pulled ahead for the win the score of the final game was 15- 12, Lester Prairie. All of the games were close, it could’ve gone either way, but Lester Prairie took home the win.

Amariah Lee, a ninth grader plays middle on the varsity team says that some of the highlights were that they only missed a few serves, they didn’t really have any hitting errors, they didn’t two hand, and they communicated really good, which sometimes we struggle with. She says they can improve by working on communication in the back row, calling the ball and making sure you know who is gonna receive it. Lee says that “Lester Prairie had an amazing outside hitter that we couldn’t block.”

An outside hitter is the player that hits and blocks on the front left side of the hitter. This player is also known as a left side hitter. On offense, this player is usually one of the main passers and a go- to hitter. She was good because her hits were really hard and powerful. They were fast and strong.

Jaylen Schweiger and Tristan Aase were fans that participated in the blackout. They heard about it being a blackout through social media and their friends. Aase thinks “the game could be more gnarly. The more gnarly the better.”

Schweiger thought that the game was really good. He said it would be better if we won, but the crowd was really noisy and rowdy which helps the team get psyched, gets the other fans pumped, and gets everyone excited and ready for the game.

This was an intense game. It was back and forth, back and forth. The fan section was on their feet, yelling and cheering the whole game. PACT’s volleyball team is good. We fought hard and did really good. We will come back from this loss with hope and confidence for the next game.