The California High School Lady Pintos volleyball team celebrated their 2021 season Sunday night with their annual end-of-the-year team banquet.
Finishing the season with a record of 25-8-1 and a district championship, the Lady Pintos had a lot to be proud of after their season came to a close.
California finished the season with three players making all-conference teams and five players making all-district teams. Senior Ella Lewis and junior Emma Whitson earned first-team all-conference honors and sophomore Isabella Kincaid earned second-team all-conference honors.
In addition to being named to all-conference teams, Lewis, Whitson and Kincaid were also named to the first-team all-district team. Making the second-team all-district team were senior Bailey Lage and junior Lauren Friedrich.
Head coach Julie Bailey started off the night by giving special thanks to all of the people and sponsors that helped to make the season a memorable one. Among them was the California Booster Club, which provided provisions for the players throughout the season.
Once recognitions were made, Bailey and her staff broke down how the teams performed for the audience who attended the banquet. Bailey explained the Lady Pintos had to make changes throughout the year to account for all of their injuries and having to host two tournaments at the last moment. Bailey went on to say that despite all the injuries they had, all three of California's teams combined to earn exactly 50 wins during the season -- 25 wins for varsity, 21 wins for junior varsity - Team A and four wins for junior varsity - Team B.
One at a time, the players were brought forward and given a special folder that contained their statistics for the season.
Once everyone was given their folder, it was time to pass out the awards. Other than the honors recognizing all-conference and all-district team selections, the coaching staff created another set of special awards to hand out to the players. Among those awards were the best digger, best passer, best killer and best server.
In addition to those awards, Bailey Lage and Emma Whitson were both given a commemorative volleyball in honor of each earning their 1,000th career assist during the season.
Bailey also described how every year, the team comes together and picks a word to represent the season and the team. This year's word was "unity." Bailey said "unity" fit her team like a glove. This is because the Lady Pintos needed to have unity to not just win sets but also to come together and still work as a team, even when all of the players weren't healthy. Because of that mentality, the Lady Pintos stayed united in their quest for success all season long.
It was a night of fun and celebration for the Lady Pintos and their families as they celebrated another strong season of California High School volleyball. While these young volleyball stars won't get back to work until the spring, the future continues to look bring for the Lady Pintos.
