By Alexander Correa ’18
On October 25 the lady jaguars competed against Woodstock High School, also know as the Thunder, in the first round of IHSA playoffs. The game took place in Woodstock’s gymnasium which was two hours away from Pritzker.
On the bus ride to the game the lady jaguars seemed to be calm as they were laughing and talking throughout the whole ride, however, this changed as the team entered the gymnasium. While watching the other team practice the ladies became nervous, getting discouraged and embracing defeat.
Manager of the football team Angel Franco stated, “In all honesty, I don’t think we will win this game.” This statement was stated through many players on the team as well like Samantha Bautista and Ana Gonzalez.
The practice led to the lady jaguars getting discouraged as the players from Woodstock were towering over the players from Pritzker. In addition to the huge size advantage from Woodstock, the players were also playing more aggressively and spiked more often than the lady jaguars had done.
The Pritzker jaguars lost both sets straight in a game where they struggled offensively. Even defensively the lady jaguars struggled greatly. Pritzker had struggled to gain any momentum scoring only a few points on each set in a big upset where the lady jaguars had gotten dominated.
The lady jaguars had lost the first set 25-12, and of those 12 points five of them came from WoodStock serving the ball out of bounds.
In the next set, Pritzker had lost 25-11, with this set ending in 6 points coming from mistakes from WoodStock.
The team was upset as they walked back to the bus with the loss and some girls were to the point of crying. However, the girls were motivated by head coach, Gabrielle Budzon as she stated, “Regardless of the loss, I’m proud of you girls and how how you’ve gotten.” Budzon also went on to state how she felt the girls could have won the game and how next season she only wants to play if the girls come 100 percent sure they want to win and are going to stay focused and committed.
Annette Pabello, varsity volleyball player stated, “the team was discouraged and I felt like we lost because we came into the game thinking we already lost.”
While this being a possibility the lady jaguars look to come back next season with revenge to win the IHSA title and be successful alongside coach Budzon. The motivational talk at the end of the game had left an impact on the team as they seem to be more focused now knowing they have a chance to win after getting to the IHSA playoffs in the first place.
