As the Ovid Elsie Volleyball season comes to an end, the two seniors Madison Cunningham and Tristin Ziola, give their last goodbyes to the team. They played their last game Monday night, Nov. 2nd, in Belding at Districts. 

Maddie Cunningham, a middle blocker for the Marauders, has been playing volleyball for seven years, two of them on the Varsity team. She has come a long way and played every game and every set this season. Playing the last game of her career is very heartbreaking, but Cunningham tries to still make it positive. 

When interviewed, here were some things she mentioned. Before she went on the court on Monday, Nov. 2nd,, she had a mix of emotions of nerves and excitement. As they played, the Marauders were doing quite well and Cunningham was confident they would take the team to five sets and win. Unfortunately as the third set was coming to an end, she knew her team had lost, and her mood started to sink. As it was her last volleyball game she was upset and tears started to flow. 

However, Cunningham states, “I was happy with how we played and fought no matter how it ended up. I feel happy we even got the opportunity to play my senior year with everything going on.” Although the season didn’t go as she and her team imagined, Cunningham is still on the bright side of things and had a very fun time with her teammates.

On this note, she is also very sad to be leaving her teammates as she has had some great connections with them, including the underclassmen. She even had a great bond with her coach Kortney Miller and her children Paisley and Case Miller. 

When asked about the rough running season Cunngingham says, “I think we could’ve won way more games than we did because we had a lot of talent, we just couldn’t find the chemistry to pull through.” 

Tristin Ziola, an outside hitter, has been playing volleyball for two years, both on the varsity team. Volleyball was just a random idea that she had one day and never expected it to go anywhere, but Ziola is athletic so she took on volleyball easily. It has been something she loved these past two years and is sad to see it go.

Before her last game started, she was excited and determined to win because she wanted the team to continue on. During the game she noted that they played better than expected, but just didn’t pull through as she had hoped.

“I was excited because we played really well and after I was upset because it was the last time I would ever get to play,” stated Ziola. Just like Cunningham, she wasn’t too happy about the Marauders season this year, but says they could have been super successful if the team had found a way to always stay positive and worked the very hardest to win more. 

Additionally, she wishes for the best to the team next year and will miss her friendships a lot. The seniors were a good attribute to this team, the underclassmen and coaches, wish them the best carrying on and will miss them as well. 

Finally, both girls are hoping to have a last basketball season coming up and bring this determination to basketball to make up for this bumpy volleyball season.

picture>