To a gym brimming with eager supporters, the girls’ varsity volleyball team recorded a four-set victory over Mercy San Francisco on November 7 in the Senior Night match.

After narrowly losing the first set 22-25, they re-energized and gained momentum, going on to win the match in three consecutive sets at 25-19, 25-19, and 25-16.

Key players of the match included Divya Kalindindi (12), Shreya Dixit (11), and Shannon Richardson (10); they contributed to the win with 20, 12 and, 14 kills respectively. Divya, Shannon, and Mercedes Chien (12) rounded out the match with 7 aces between them.

The bleachers were filled with over a hundred enthusiastic fans, many of whom brandished green and white pom poms while cheering loudly. As per tradition for each match, the parents of second-year varsity player Shannon had handed out the pom poms to fellow varsity and junior varsity parents, junior varsity players, and friends.

The upper school volleyball program has been preparing extensively for senior night; both the varsity and junior varsity players designed and decorated t-shirts and posters to honor the seniors. The two teams arrived at Blackford early and adorned the walls of the gym with the posters. Additionally, the sophomores and juniors on the varsity team put together personalized albums for each of the seniors. The albums documented the team’s previous games and tournaments, team bonding events, and the team’s summer trip to Hawaii (where they played beach volleyball matches and bonded in preparation for the 2013-2014 season).

After decorating the gym, the junior varsity team began warming up for their game against Mercy’s junior varsity team, a match which the Eagles’ went on to win 25-16, 25-14. Following a respite, the senior night ceremony was held.

During the senior night ceremony, the younger varsity players and Head Varsity Volleyball coach Theresa “Smitty” Smith presented the varsity players’ parents with large bouquets to recognize their efforts over the past several years. In addition, Coach Smitty gave a speech to the gym, in which she praised the players and thanked them for their many years of practice and dedication towards the sport of volleyball. After pictures were taken, the team began to warm up and “pepper” for the first set.

Smitty has high hopes for her team in CCS and beyond, and she believes that her players have the necessary skills to go far.

“My hope is that we are peaking now that we are entering the CCS tournament.  We have the talent to make a deep run in CCS and we’d like to make it to the finals and move on to Nor Cal’s,” she said in pre-game interview.

“The girls that have been on varsity for a while have improved every aspect of their game, but more importantly, they teach the younger players in the program what it means to be a Harker Volleyball player.  They’ve sacrificed over the years to be at every practice, and to come in and work out over the summer, and to play club volleyball because they know that is the key to our  team’s success,” she added.”

This year’s four graduating seniors are outside hitter Divya Kalidindi, libero Mercedes Chien, defensive specialist/right side hitter Renu Singh, and setter Christina Wong. Former varsity athlete Urvi Gupta was also honored at the ceremony by Coach Smitty. Though Urvi was unable to continue on with varsity team her senior year, the coaches felt that her years of participation in the program deserved recognition.

Divya, who is a captain, reflected back on her three years on Varsity playing volleyball and shared the impact volleyball has had on her life, “I will definitely miss Harker volleyball. It’s been such a huge and integral part of my life during high school, and playing with my teammates for the last home game will definitely be bittersweet.”

Doreene Kang (10) stated, “I’ll miss all of our seniors, especially because so many people on our team have stayed since last year. This is the first year that I’ve had graduating seniors and I can’t believe that they’ll be done once the season is over.”

The game closed with the girls celebrating together in huddle at the center of the court. Though this is the last league match and could potentially be the final home game, Varsity will compete in their CCS seeding match this Saturday, November 9 in a location yet to be announced.