After an undefeated streak of 33 games, the Lady Titans took a 2-3 loss to the Monarchs, the hometown rivals, in the Metro Conference Volleyball Tournament.
As the Titans are back-to-back state champs, losing is not common. Senior Lauren Medeck described how the Titans battled throughout the tough game that went to five sets: staring with a 25-20 win, followed by two losses – 23-25 and 21-25 – then a 25-19 win, and a final loss of 10-15.
“I don’t feel like there was ever a point where we were so out of it,” Medeck said. “We kept battling and kept our heads high throughout the whole game.”
Perfection is not what the Titans are striving for. They know that perfection is impossible and differs from team to team. The Titans are solely focused on their growth, Medeck said, and how they can learn from situations such as the loss to the Monarchs.
“We are going to respond with composure again. Yes, the loss was hard, because no one wants to lose, but I think that game showed everything that we need to work on and get better at,” Medeck said. “We just need to get back to work at practice and we are going to come out as an even better and cleaner team.”
The Titans did not let their emotions override their mindset even though taking an unexpected loss is something that is hard to be calm about. The mindset after the game was not sad or disappointed.
Instead, Medeck said, “Our attitude after the game was: ‘OK, when can we practice again?’ Like there was never a shred of doubt of whether we could come back even stronger. We just knew that wasn’t our best, and that we were going to fix it and then perform the next time.”
The team faces many eyes on them, many teams hunting them down, and when a loss like this happens, people notice. The team responds in a collected manner, Medeck said.
“The mental strength comes from one another,” Medeck said. “We really focus on building relationships in our program, and I think having that trust allows us to have confidence in ourselves and our team.”
The Titans will face the Monarchs again Nov. 1 at 5 p.m. in Lincoln’s Pinnacle Bank Arena for the first game of the NSAA Girls Varsity State Volleyball Championships.
