The Pineville Lady Lions volleyball team wrapped up their season on Monday with a loss to the Lynn Camp Lady Cats in the first round of the 51st District tournament at Lynn Camp. Pineville fell in straight sets, 25-13, 25-12 and 25-15. With the loss, the Lady Lions fell to 6-19 in their final game of the 2019 season.

Pineville will be roaring back on to the hardwood next season, but they will be doing so after graduating 10 players from this year’s roster. Those seniors include: Chesney Brock, Sarah Elliot, Chelsea Foister, Reece Foley, Adelaida Garcia, Peyton Keys, Faith Long, Haley Phipps, Hannah Robbins and Ali Root.

Phipps appeared in one game for Pineville this season, Keyes played in seven games, Elliot saw time in 17 games, Robbins played in 18 matches, Long made 20 appearances, Foister appeared in 21 outings, and Garcia played in 22 games. Foley and Root played in all 23 games for the Lady Lions this season.

Foley led the team in assists with 114. Garcia followed closely with 96. Root led the team in digs on the season with 69 total. Garcia led the team in aces with 71. She was followed by Foley with 70.

With wrapping up their final game of the season and having 10 players graduating from this year’s team, Pineville coach Samantha North saw a lot of growth and leadership from her seniors. North says that she wanted her graduating players to leave behind a lasting legacy to help establish a bigger and better Pineville volleyball program.

“This season was all about changing the culture surrounding our program,” said North. “We have had the volleyball program for four years now, and we just want to establish ourselves as a program instead of just a team. We played a fuller schedule, started Breakfast Club practices at 6 a.m. on Fridays, allowed middle school players on our team for the first time and just wanted to get better, regardless of our record.

“We won some tough games against Bell, Middlesboro and Harlan County in five sets, which was big for us because one of the big things we worked on was just continuing to battle no matter what the scoreboard read.

“This team was extra special because the seniors that we are losing were freshman when we started the team. We talked a lot about the legacy they wanted to leave behind — what they wanted the underclassmen to remember about them as an individual player and as a teammate. Out of our seniors we had some incredible leaders. Our team will be very different next year, but I look forward to seeing how their legacy continues to help our program grow.”