Lady Jaguar Volleyball - "House of Horrors" Lives up to its billing: Heartbreaking 3-1 loss in Section Final

The Lady Jaguars huddle up before starting game one against Montevideo in the section final. After a fast-paced four-game match, the smiles were quickly erased when the Lady Jaguars fell 3-1 to the Thunderhawks.

Here are a few underclassmen on this year's Lady Jaguar team, preparing for warmup drills prior to the Section 6AA championship match.

What should be most remembered of this season is how the Lady Jaguars hung together through success and losses, improving as the season endured, brushing off the pressure all the way.

The Lady Jaguar Volleyball team visited the University of Minnesota-Morris fieldhouse for the second time in three seasons for the Section 6AA final, their third straight trip to the section final and fourth since 2002. They dropped the match 3-1 to the Montevideo Thunderhawks, who will take a 26-1-2 record into the Class AA tournament next weekend in St.Paul. It certainly was not for a lack of effort, as they simply did not have enough gas in the tank after an emotional drubbing of rival Sauk Centre in the district final two nights previous.

It was the fourth trip for a Jaguar team to UM-Morris for a championship event since 1997, and fourth loss in such games. No one saw this coming.

Every player on the court for the Lady Jaguars displayed great heart and talent but ended up playing at about 80% of their potential. In reality, they have nothing to hang their heads about as they played through immense pressure over their heads all season long, never slowing their strive to become a better team. They finish 28-4, identical in record to 2005, an outstanding achievement in itself. They earned the Central Minnesota Conference championship, two regular-season tournament championships, as well as their third straight Sub-Section 6AA-17 championship.

It was our school's 14th trip to a Section Final game, where we now have a record of 1-13 since 1995. Thirteen Jaguar teams have fallen one win from "state" in that time.

The girls should keep in mind that no Jaguar team returning a large nucleus of its players from a banner season has ever lived up to the expectations of how far they would go in playoffs. Most noteably are previous boys and girls basketball teams in the late 1990s and the 2002-2003, and 2004-2005 seasons, as well as wrestling teams in the late 1990s, who all fell in section tournament play even though they all had strong chances of advancing to "state".
It truly is very, very difficult to repeat when you have a target on your back the entire season.
Expectations never win games, and it is much easier to get motivated to defeat someone when you go in as underdogs. (Prime example: the Lady Jaguars being seeded #2 behind Sauk in the sub-section this season.)

As tough as the loss was, they also must never lose sight of continuing a strong and proud tradition of volleyball excellence for their school and community, while giving 100% sportsmanship in all 32 matches they played.