Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

CASSOPOLIS — The Cassopolis volleyball team fell in a five set thriller to Watervliet in Division 3 district semifinal play at Cassopolis Wednesday night.

The Rangers lost the first set 25-14 before rebounding to take the second set 25-10. The third set was a back-and-forth affair that saw the Panthers pull away to take it 25-21. The fourth set was also close throughout with the Rangers making enough plays to win 25-20 and force a fifth set.

“We kind of came out a little bit like we knew we were going to win. I think that’s what hurt us a little bit,” said Cassopolis coach Kaisha Martin. “I think that we were cold and then we had to warm up and unfortunately in volleyball, you can’t start from the bottom and try to work yourself up. I think that’s what hurt us.”

Trailing 5-10 in the fifth and final set, the Rangers dug deep and reeled off a 5-1 scoring run to trim the deficit to one before the Panthers scored the set’s final four points to win the game.

“We were as scrappy as can be,” Martin said. “We got to some balls and the whole crowd was wondering how we got to them. I have to shout my whole team out because they all exceeded my expectations.”

Mackenzie Boyer had seven kills, three aces and two digs; Janayla Franklin seven kills, three blocks one ace and one dig; Tori Burks 27 assists, eight kills, five digs, one ace and one block; Brooklyn four kills, three blocks and one ace; Ryley Bowsher had 17 digs, four assists; Jordin Heiman had 10 kills, two digs and six aces.

While the season did not end the way they had hoped, Martin was proud of the team’s scrappiness and its ability to play as a team.

“We are the underdogs,” Martin said. “One thing I loved is that it wasn’t just one person who was good – we have everybody that’s good. A lot of teams don’t expect that – they think it’s just one person and we have a lot of killers out there so I think that’s what was most exciting. It was very exciting to see that the team we just played didn’t know who was gonna be our top dog because everybody was.”

Cassopolis will miss the contributions from seniors Boyer, Franklin, Maliyah Flowers, Adrianna Broussard and Danica Heath but Martin is optimistic about the team’s future.

“We still have a very strong team coming up,” Martin said. “I’m excited.”