Not This Time.....

After losing in the championship last year, the Lady Bulldogs wouldn't let that happen again. Emi and her team won the State Championship this last weekend. They did amazing and played some of the best volleyball I've seen them play all year long. They swept the tournament, winning each game in 3 matches.

Their first game was against Southeast. After getting out the first game jitters, they played great. It was over in a hurry. Emi did great and had a solid game, but what else is new!! Luckily her first game was late enough that Dani and I could make it in time. I had a test that afternoon, so we couldn't leave until 2:00. Her game wasn't until 4:30 so we made it in plenty of time.

After the game that night, we headed back to the hotel to eat pizza and hang out. Before we settled down for the night, Dani and I took some sugar cookies (which are Emi's favorite) that we made over to Emi's hotel. We ate some pizza for dinner with everyone outside of my parents hotel room. To finish off the night, Dani, Melissa, and I had a late night hair coloring session. It was great to spend time talking and just spending time together.

For the semi-final Emi played Wright. What a sweet game that was to watch, since Wright was the team that beat our girls in the championship last year. It was a bit scary because the first two games, Wright jumped out to a 8 point lead. The girls worked hard, didn't panic, and slowly chipped away at their lead. All the girls stepped up and played together extremely well. You can definitely tell they got into the Wright girls heads and easily beat them in the third game. Needless to say, Emi was a little relieved. She had so much stress on her, and nobody thought that they would make it to the championship after losing such a big senior class last year. I knew they could do it, and the team peaked at exactly the right time. They played their best games at the state tournament, and everything just clicked for them.

Before the championship game, the whole herd of us (we have been referred to as the birthday party as a matter of fact) went to eat at Olive Garden. We checked out of the hotel before the game since my dad had to be home for meetings the next morning. Darius's favorite thing about our hotel was the "bucking moo" in the lobby at the Come On Inn. I loved seeing the little munchkins and getting to play with them all weekend.

For the championship game they had to play Big Horn. The girls were ready and you could see the determination on all their faces. It was awesome to see them play. A lot of people came down from Lovell to support the girls. I love being from small towns, where everyone loves to support the high school athletes. They came out swinging and dominated the game early. Emi played like such a beast. Between the Wright & Big Horn games, Emi had 39 kills!! I wish I had 1/3 of the skill that she has for the game. I was so excited for Emilee when her and her team won, that I doubt it would have been possible to be any happier than if it had been me that had won.

Dani and I were going to head back to Laramie originally, but after Emilee won the championship we couldn't miss out on getting to "honk" them in that night on the firetruck. So instead, we came to Lovell for the rest of the weekend to get to support Emi a little more and also spend time with Liss the last day she was here.

As if winning the championship wasn't enough, Emilee was also named to both All-Conference and All-State team. She was also interviewed for the paper after winning the semi-final game, and interviewed for the Casper news after they won the championship. The next morning, Lovell was on a full page cover of the Casper Tribune celebrating their win!!

Emilee has had an amazing season, and I can't believe how much she improved throughout the year (not that she wasn't a stud to begin with). Her team definitely couldn't have done it without her and her leadership. Even though she's only a sophomore, her team looked to her and she was always very consistent. I'm so proud of my baby sister and all of her accomplishments. Congratulations baby sister, you deserve it!!!