Volleyball Seniors Celebrate Last Game of the Season with a Win

by Carolina Zimbron

In the last game of her career, senior middle hitter Lauren Willow led Cedarville University volleyball to a 3-0 victory over Ohio Dominican Thursday night. The Lady Jackets won by scores of 26-25, 27-25, and 25-13 to end their 2021-2022 season with a win. 

Junior libero Mallory Delamarter had three service aces and fourteen digs, and junior outside hitter Payton Krahn had eight kills and ten digs for Cedarville. Leading the team was senior outside hitter Liene Miller had seven kills and 13 digs that helped the Lady Jackets dominate the court in their last game. 

The team enjoyed its last game with the seniors leaving everything on the court and enjoying to the fullest their last minutes as the team they are today.

“We finished really well, on the last stretch we really played together,” said Miller.

The Lady Jackets had a great first set maintaining the lead for the most part keeping Ohio Dominican close on the scoreboard. It was after the second timeout that the Panthers took the lead at 21-19. Cedarville was able to take the lead right after third timeout finishing the set at 26-25.

During the second set Ohio Dominican took the lead leaving the Lady Jackets behind due to some unforced errors, but little by little Cedarville was able to take the lead again with the help of Willow and Riley Hensley who had eight kills and two digs throughout the match. The Lady Jackets were able to win the set at 27-25 still keeping Ohio Dominican very close on the scoreboard. 

It was during the third set when the Lady Jackets completely dominated the court keeping the lead for the entire time. Cedarville won the set at 25-13 giving the Lady Jackets their last win of the season. 

“It’s pretty surreal, I loved every second, I can’t believe the time has finally come for it to be my last season,” said Miller who spent four and a half years studying at Cedarville and is now planning to go to Europe next semester to get recruited to continue playing volleyball.

Overall the Lady Jackets had an amazing season and each player showed what they were capable of. For this specific game, head coach Greg Smith allowed the seniors to take the lead and play for most of the game to lead Cedarville to its last victory of the season.