Falcons VB bows out at regional championships

There were two nights of tears in the Abbotsford Falcons final matches of the 2021 volleyball season. On Thursday, there were tears of joy as Abby finally dispatched the Auburndale Eagles. On Saturday, it was tears of sadness as the Falcons were stopped by Stanley-Boyd.

Perhaps no one felt the emotions more keenly than head coach Lee Schreiber, who steps down after over a decade of guiding and teaching the game of volleyball to untold scores of Falcons.

“Sometimes you gotta take the turn that life wants you to take,” Scrheiber said. “I am going to miss the game and I appreciate everything the school district did for me, and the parents and my family and the girls. I can’t say enough about how it felt to have that support.”

This was in part one of the reasons Abby fought so hard to overcome the Eagles on Thursday.

The Falcons clawed their way back in each of the sets they won in 25-23, 20-25, 29-27 and 25-23 victory, “Since it’s our coach’s last year, I knew this game meant a lot to him, and it meant a lot to us to send him out with a win in his last home game,” senior Sydney Apfelbeck said.

Olivia Hammel led the way for Abby with 12 kills and 21 digs, along with Stephany Espiono with four aces, eight digs and 17 assists. Adriana Fuentes added 16 digs and Lydia Carlson had 30 digs.

“They’re a great team. The last half of the season they have just been pouring it on,” Schreiber said as he high fived and celebrated with his players and fans. “Time and time again they made key plays and that led to our success on the court tonight.”

There’s something to be said about familiarity though, and having faced the Eagles several times allowed the Falcons to know what plays to run. The Orioles of Stanley-Boyd were an unknown to Abby coming into Saturday’s regional final.

“We knew they had two really big girls and that we had to find ways to shut them down, but we had never seen them play or played against them before,” Bridgette Pogodzinski said. “So we didn’t know what they were going pull out of their back pocket.”

The Falcons found themselves in an early deficit in the first set but worked hard to put the set on even terms, but the Orioles rode the big hitting of Emily Brenner to get a 25-18 first set.

Abby always seemed to hover close by in the second set, but could not get over the big hitting and several untimely errors as they dropped the second set 25-17.

But after two sets, the Falcons began to figure things out, and held a lead in the third. Unfortunately, they could not close it out, and fell 25-23.

Hammel closed her final match out in style, striking eight kills and notching 16 digs. Senior Lydia Carlson finished with 12 digs and seven kills and Bridgette Pogodzinski had 11 assists and 11 digs in her last match in an Abby uniform.

Sydney Falteisek had five kills and Stephany Espino had 14 assists and six digs. Adriana Fuentes had 11 digs.

With the loss, Abby’s season comes to a close, but there’s plenty to be happy with, Schreiber said after the Falcons went 2514 on the season, especially in light of last year’s COVID-19 season.

“I can’t complain. My career was phenomenal, conference championship two years ago, seven regional finals,” Schreiber said as he looked on his career. “I always said if I ever walk away, I want Abby to be in a good spot, and it’s in a great spot. Whoever takes over is going to have a great group to work with.”