It’s the sour taste of silver for the Bobcat volleyball team this year.

The Bobcats fell to the Mars Fightin’ Planets at the 3A WPIAL championships November 2 at Peters Township High School.

Beaver Area was hoping to earn their second gold in two years, but fell just short after four sets.

The game started off fine with a close Bobcat loss in the first set. The final score was 25-23.

For those who don’t follow volleyball, there are five sets with the first four being played to 25 and the fifth being played to 15. A set doesn’t end unless a team wins by at least 2 points making some sets go over 25 points. (This rule is more important in championships because the Cats are matched with tougher opponents and aren’t sweeping teams 3-0 anymore.)

The second set began and the Bobcats started to find their footing.

With a 25-21 Beaver Area win for the second set, Mars came crashing down.

The Planets won both the third and fourth sets with scores 25-23 and 25-15.

The Cats seemed to be lacking their unmatched underdog spirit that they were able to harness last year against Freeport.

The team seemingly gave up in the fourth set despite such close scores previously.

The Ladycats started showing cracks when players started crying and fighting with their own teammates mid set; Mars was able to capitalize on this and specifically target the players who seemed to be breaking under pressure.

It was the final punch for the Bobcats and the team accepted the loss.

As I have been saying for months, the Bobcats perform best when they have the serve and are able to hit, and struggle with defense and serve receive.

Mars head coach, Tami Caraway, stated in the Beaver County Times that “Beaver [Area] is a team of runs. If you allow them to get on a run, you could be in trouble. They’ll keep the ball rolling.”

Since Mars won the MAC championships but Beaver Area swept them in a regular season matchup both teams knew each other's strategies and were both well prepared.

Bobcat head coach Suze Pollins stated that “We couldn't sit back. It was going to be a back-and-forth match, and we couldn't take plays off. When we did, Mars took advantage of it.”

Mars had four players record over 10 kills in the game, never allowing the Bobcats to utilize their best hitters.

As for the Bobcats, senior Zoe Ringer proved to be the MVP of the game recording a whopping 42 assists.

Ringer is making sure that her school record of over 3200 assists is there to stay long after graduation.

Though Ringer’s effort was excellent, assists are futile without the hitters being able to connect with the ball, and that is where the Bobcats struggled.

With Mars doing their homework, junior Kailyn Connelly only played in the second and fourth sets, respectively.

The Bobcats seemed to have created a reliance on Connelly, and with her hits going out and being blocked, Beaver Area was not earning serves or points.

With a quiet bus ride home ahead of them, the Ladycats had to pivot and focus on the PIAA state championships.

The top four WPIAL teams in each division qualify for states, so win or lose the Cats were moving on.

Since they lost the championships, the Bobcats now had an away game just a short three days later.

The Bobcats had to play the Dubois Beavers (coincidence? I think not) who were the District IX champions November 5. The WPIAL is District VII, and is regarded as the hardest district in Pennsylvania for most sports. Oddly enough, the best volleyball schools in PA are almost always from the middle of the state near State College and Harrisburg.

On Election Day night, the Bobcats were ready for some redemption.

Making a trend of coming back the Cats lost the first set with a score of 25-20 but quickly came back with a 25-10 win in the second.

The game evened out again with a 25-23 Bobcat win and then a win of 28-26.

The team seemed better physically than they were the prior Saturday against Mars, but once again by the fourth set the girls rattled resulting in tears and mistakes.

Ringer was able to have four kills, two aces, 12 digs, and 36 assists.

Junior Aubrey Bumblis led the team in both serve receives and digs with 30 and 26.

Sophomore Kaylee Kisling led the team with a whopping nine blocks.

The Cats were moving on to the quarter finals against Greencastle Antrim.

Greencastle is three hours away, and per PIAA rules the game would be played in a neutral site between the schools November 9. The game was held at Johnstown Area High School.

Greencastle was supposed to be a tough matchup, but after a Bobcat win in the first set the ball kept rolling.

The team ended up being an easier matchup than Dubois, and the Ladycats had an easy 3-0 win. The final scores were 25-17, 25-16, and 25-19.

Connelly led the team in kills with a consistent 17 kills while Ringer proved to want to win for her senior season with 30 assists and a team-high two blocks.

This win meant that the Bobcats ended Greencastle’s 11 game win streak at home, since the Blue Devils were considered the home team, and the Bobcats continued with their eight game away winning streak.

The team was now thinking about the state finals, but the semis proved to be a roadblock for the Cats.

The semifinal PIAA games were played at North Allegheny November 12—and for the fourth time this season the Bobcats were across the net from the Mars Fightin’ Planets.

This turned into the battle of the public schools with both Beaver Area and Mars being the final public teams in the tournament. With a 1-2 record on the Planets, the Bobcats came ready to play.

Sadly, it wasn’t enough.

The Bobcats lost in a 3-0 sweep: 25-23, 25-22, and 25-17.

Coach Pollins said that “We didn’t have it again tonight. We played soft and didn’t come out fast like we did at Greencastle. It stinks; the senior class is so special to me, and they were my first class as a head coach. It is going to be very hard to see this group leave.”

The team has had worse games that both ended in wins and losses, but in the end Mars proved to just have a stronger offense this season.

Despite the loss, junior outside hitter Jaedyn Brown was able to put points on the board giving Beaver Area momentum when they were down by more than 5 points.

Brown stepped up for fellow junior Anna Vinopal after she had an ACL injury early in the year.

Vinopal was a three-year starter and six-rotation player leaving big shoes that Brown was able to successfully fill.

Pollins remarked that “Jaedyn stepped up. We knew she could do it and does it every year in club [volleyball] for us.

With a 3-0 loss, the Bobcats will receive the fourth in the state title with the other side of the bracket receiving third.

Mars will continue on to the state finals, for their first time, against the reigning champs, Pope John Paul II High School.

By the end of the third set, the seniors were finished and the team was done until next summer.

The team says goodbye to four senior players: Grace Vinopal, Allie Williams, Shophia Sharpless, and Ringer.

Ringer will continue her volleyball career at Fairfield State University next season.