Blood. Sweat. Tears. Everything was left on the court Thursday night for the Newman Varsity Volleyball team.
Newman (7 seed) faced Lafayette Christian Academy (10 seed) in the Palestra last Thursday night. Newman was coming off a 3 set sweep of Loyola Prep (26 seed) while Lafayette was coming off a sweep of West St. Mary. Anticipation was through the roof for these two high seeded juggernauts to battle it out for a trip to the quarter finals.
LCA came out swinging winning the first set 25-16. They were big. They were strong. They were quick, but the Greenies weren’t fazed. Newman came back the next set winning 25-23 tying up the match and showing just how resilient they are. Senior captain Heyward Parrino, Jessica Miller, Morgan LeBourgeois, and “Za” all played major roles but it was ultimately the team chemistry as a whole that tied the match back up. Newman did eventually lose the third set 25-13. Once again Newman could have thrown in the towel. They could have just admitted defeat and gone home. But they did not. They fought a tough fight losing 23-25 with a couple questionable calls that will ultimately haunt the contest forever.
Newman had an impressive and historic year. They had an extremely remarkable regular season going winning 11 of their 16 games. They were able to beat 5a Terrebonne and 4a Ben Franklin, while also winning a set against Parkview (the 1 seed in the state). The Greenies found themselves the 7th seed out of a whopping 42. Most impressive they did this all with one senior. One. While the Green Machine was unable to complete their goal of a state championship, they should not feel down. They should be very proud of everything they accomplished as I know the Newman Community is. This program has an extremely bright future that should consist of multiple trips to the Pontchartrain center. Great season girls and good luck in the future!