While the season may have ended for the Wright City girls’ volleyball team on Monday, the bittersweet ending is much sweeter than it is bitter.

The 25-14, 25-18, 25-13 defeat at the hands of Class 3 District 6 top seed Borgia in a match played in Fulton was merely the punctuation to what was a great season for Wright City.

It was an incredibly memorable season, and not just because the Wildcats made a district championship match for the first time since 2007.

As senior Marli Burkhardt sees it, the overall growth the team experienced, from having to be quick studies under new coach Gabby Vogt, who came on board just before the beginning of the season, to the team’s second-straight Eastern Missouri Conference title, to playing for a piece of postseason hardware, and earning the second-place plaque, was amazing.

“It says so much about the team that we have become,” Burkhardt said. “Even our coach said it in our final huddle: the difference in us from the beginning of the year to now is such an incredible change. I’m so proud of my team and everybody on it. This wasn’t (the desired ending), but I’m very happy with the things we accomplished working together. There was a lot of excitement and emotion going into the match.”

After Wright City (19-9) dropped the first set Monday, the Wildcats hit something of a groove.

The Wildcats jumped out to a 5-2 lead in the set and battled to the very end in what was the team’s best run of play throughout the match.

Senior Jaiden Walch said she was proud of the fight her team showed, even after a first-set loss.

“I’m just glad that we got to show what we’ve been working on and what we’ve been working for for all four years,” Walch said. “This (effort) really showed the dedication and the family we are. That second (set) was where we played our game. Things didn’t go our way. Little things are going to happen that aren’t going to go your way. We fought all the way to the end.”

Although she’s been with the team only since shortly before the season began, Vogt said she takes great pride in the fact that every single member of the team fully bought into the Wildcats’ common goals.

While that buy-in didn’t lead to a championship, this is the closest the program has come in 19 years.

“Where they were a couple of years ago to where they are now obviously shows the growth that they’ve been making over the past couple of years and the determination they’ve had to get to this point,” Vogt said. “They’ve worked so hard. They earned the right to be here.” 

Burkhardt said that, probably tougher than the single-match loss, will be the everyday loss of the camaraderie she’s come to love with her team, which feels like family.

“This is definitely going to be rough,” Burkhardt said. “I am going to miss these girls so much.”