By Micheal Rios, Tulalip News
The Tulalip Heritage volleyball program recently held its ‘Senior Night’ in a memorable home matchup with Evangel Classical School. Community filled the stands of Francy J. Sheldon gymnasium to celebrate the on-court growth and achievement of three Lady Hawks seniors – #6 Kayleena Follestad, #7 Elizabel Ramos, and #16 Laniyah Moore.
Prior to the match’s opening game, each senior was shouted out by team co-captain Raylee Lewis and took to center court. There, they were met by family, flowers, and hand-made signs full of admiration and well wishes.
Senior Elizabel said her favorite part of senior year is “getting to meet amazing people a.k.a my friends and having a class that showed me how to be an assistant for elementary teachers.” She shared her plans after high school are to “become a nurse midwife.”
Fellow senior Laniyah said her favorite part of senior year is “the morning circle, it’s pretty cool. And meeting new people and friends.” When considering life after high school, she shared, “I’m not entirely sure just yet, but I do want to go to college and I think law school sounds pretty interesting.”
All those positive vibes created by the ‘Senior Night’ festivities carried over into actual gameplay. The Lady Hawks came out firing on all cylinders. In the first set, they took an early 10-3 lead over Evangel, extended it to 15-6, and ended up taking it 25-12.
As they’ve been doing all season long, the Lady Hawks were all smiles and cheers, but this time there was just a little extra oomph in all their attacks. Their bumps were crisp, their sets well organized, and their spikes were actually finding their way through the defense and resulting in resounding points for the home team. Of course, this got the home crowd fired up at the prospect of getting a much-needed win.
Chants of “Tulalip power!” rang out through both the 2nd and 3rd sets while the girls continued to execute and score at will. They took a 16-8 lead before claiming the 2nd set 25-15. Then, followed that up with a 5-0 lead in the 3rd set. Senior Laniyah caught fire with her serves and connected on several aces. This allowed the Lady Hawks to repeatedly perform their choreographed ace celebration that got bench players, cheerleaders, and fans to echo “Ace, ace, ace!”
Behind the impressive serve game, Heritage vanquished Evangel 25-8 in the 3rd set and earned a well-deserved 3-0 match W. It was a fairytale ending for the inspiring Lady Hawks team celebrating their seniors on their home floor.
“It felt really good to get a win on my senior night. It would’ve sucked if we lost,” admitted ace machine Laniyah after the victory. “I like serving. It’s one of my favorite parts of playing volleyball and something that I’m just naturally good at. I’m just happy to get the win because we’ve been working together so well and our teamwork is starting to pay off.”
“We have so much love for our seniors and, as a team, you could really tell with the energy and extra motivation we brought tonight just how much we wanted to get the win for them,” added co-captain Raylee. “Our last game vs. Lummi, we went to five sets and almost won. We’ve been getting better each game and know this is something we can build on to really end the season strong.”
The Lady Hawks will wrap up their season of enthusiasm and memory-making with back-to-back home games on October 23 and 24. Both matches scheduled for a 5:00pm start.