The energy was electric at Cabrillo Middle School on Thursday as the players prepared to play their last home volleyball game of the season.

The Foothill girls’ varsity volleyball team lost 3-0 against Cate School with scores of 10-25, 9-25, and 14-25.

For all of the players this was their first, last game playing for Foothill, but for varsity player and senior Avalon Elliott this was the last home game of her high school career.

Elliott finds that the final product of the game is the most important.

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”In the end I think what matters is how you finish, and I think we finished strong,”said Elliott.

Elliott found adjusting to the new coaches way of playing proved to be a challenge.

“Adjusting to the new coaching style and what he likes to see on the court was a challenge so it gave me something to work for,” said Elliott.

Before the game started, Coach Chip Tarleton recognized Elliott for her seniority in playing volleyball for Foothill. Elliott was presented with a bouquet of flowers from the team and took a picture with her family, and the game started shortly after.

Tarleton wants to make it a tradition to recognize the varsity team’s seniors at the end of every season.

In the first set, Foothill jumped ahead when freshman  Morgan Gallagher scored two consecutive points within the first minute of the game.

Senior Avalon Elliott served four times and scored the first ace of the game. The first set ended 10-25 in Cate’s favor.

For the second set, Cate had the first serve, having pushed ahead in the previous set.

Foothill fell behind when Cate continued to score, but Foothill was able to catch up, scoring several points consecutively.

Cate was fouled at 14 points for “hands over the net” while trying to block the ball on the net.

The third set ended 14-25, giving Cate the game.

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After the game, Coach Tarleton spoke about how he was happy with how the season went, and how he was anticipating the next season when the team would have more experience.

“It’s a good feeling, the girls played very well today. Yes, they didn’t win, but winning is not the paramount goal right now, it’s improving,” said Tarleton.

Tarleton felt the team vastly improved from their first game to their last home game.

”They’ve showed remarkable improvement as opposed to the previous matches that we played,” he said.

Sophomore Payton Grenier was just as proud and happy about the way the team played.

“I feel I played pretty well, a team can play hard but still lose,” said Grenier.

Being able to watch her team play and improve made Grenier proud of her team.

“Just knowing that everybody was having fun and playing hard for a new team was really fun and as a team made me really proud,” said Grenier.

Tarleton is proud of how the team played despite the hardships of the season. He felt this game was the accomplishment he was most proud of the team for.

Grenier felt the most proud when her team won their first game.

“As a player, this season, my proudest moment would be at our first home game winning,” said Grenier.

Tarleton feels the team has grown closer, like a family, and that it positively affected the way they played.

“That one moment when Morgan went up and gave Heather a big bear hug in the game, it really doesn’t happen that way for a normal mature varsity team, but that’s the emotion that these young kids show,” said Tarleton.

Elliott felt that her team definitely put in their best effort to make their team improve in skill.

“It feels good leaving this gym knowing we played with all our heart, I think we really put everything out their together as a team,” she said.