Northlake Christian’s Varsity Volleyball team never fails to surprise fans. For two consecutive years they have made the state tournament, performing very well both times. However, they played their last game of the season on November 9th, falling short to Pope John Paul High School in the state tournament quarterfinal.

“Making it to state two years in a row shows the heart of our team. It’s not easy making it to state, and we’ve done it twice which is more than a lot of schools can say,” Senior Captain Mia Chiota said.

The team this year was very unique in that they did not graduate any seniors last year. This gave them the chance to grow closer and develop together to be even better this past season.

“Our bond was really tight because we had the extra year of growth[without losing anyone],” Junior Kyren Whittington said.

On the other side, there are only two graduating seniors this year, meaning the team still have lots of potential. Seniors Mia Chiota and Abby Cramond have both made huge impacts on the volleyball program in their years at the school.

“It’s going to be tough next year with the loss of Mia because she really got a lot of sets and the offense kind of evolved around her,” Whittington said.

Chiota was a huge asset to the team. She was the first player in Northlake history to have 1,000 kills in her high school career. She also made first team all district, first team all state and first team all metro.

Senior Captain Abby Cramond made second team all state and second team all district. Cramond performed very well until she suffered from a serious knee injury right before playoffs began.

“[When Abby was injured] we lost our libero so lineups really changed now that [Sophomore] Kaylyn [Addison] had to step in and play back row,” Whittington said.

According to Whittington, the team was proud of how they adjusted and played without Cramond for the remaining games.

This gave the team a chance to see what next year would be like as well as challenge to overcome. The team hopes to compete in their third state tournament for the 2019 season despite losing two seniors.

Although the team lost, they still count the season as a victory.

“This season was incredible. We grew a lot as a team last year and that continued into this season. We stayed true to our game and focused on what we were able to do instead of other teams which lead us to beat bigger schools,” Chiota said.