News Photo by James Andersen Alpena’s Sydney Hitzelberger (11) and Tiffany Tessmer attempt to block a Gaylord attack during the opening set of a Big North Conference volleyball match on Wednesday at Alpena High School.

ALPENA — The Alpena High volleyball team hosted its final home game against Gaylord on Wednesday and honored four seniors during Senior Night.

Unfortunately for Alpena, it fell short in three out of the four sets that were played with final scores of 20-25, 25-19, 25-27, and 19-25.

“The seniors for every team I’ve ever coached have brought leadership, energy, and emotion. Even on a night like tonight, for some of these girls, it will be the last time they might be taking the floor, depending on how some of the upcoming games go,” Alpena coach Kolby Andrews said.

The Wildcats began the first set by taking an early lead and maintaining that lead until the final few points of the game. After bringing the set to a 19-19 tie, Alpena lost momentum and ended up on the wrong end of a 25-20 score.

Entering the second set, Alpena was determined to answer back. The Wildcats did just that even after finding themselves in several deficits throughout the set. Once Alpena took the 15-13 lead, that was enough momentum to propel it to the 25-19 win.

With the match being tied up 1-1, it was a must-win set for both teams. Alpena continued to put itself down in the match again, even going down 17-6 at one point. But the effort from the Wildcats was incredible to finish off the set. Although Alpena took the loss in the end, they brought the game back to a 25-25 tie and were narrowly defeated 27-25.

The final set for the Wildcats did not go as the team had hoped. Putting themselves in a 9-1 hole early was a massive disadvantage the Wildcats could not dig itself out of.

The Wildcats were outscored all set long which led to a 25-19 final score.

“I have to give credit to the girls because they worked really hard tonight. They executed some things we’ve been practicing and we’ve been working on which gives me a lot of confidence going into the next couple of days,” Andrews said.

Alpena has district playoffs coming up and will play Gaylord again for the third time this season. With lots of improvements to be made before the game, Andrews and the Wildcats are hoping to flip the script and come out with a win during the playoffs.

“We’re going to play this team again, if we serve better and block better I think this will be a totally different outcome,” Andrews said.

Leading the Wildcats in kills was senior Tiffany Tessmer with nine, and senior Lanie Morgan ended with seven. Alpena’s leader in assists was Avery Dubey, she finished with 29. Senior Macy Schram led the team in digs with nine and Olivia Precord ended with seven. Tessmer and Morgan also had four solo blocks each.

Alpena plays Gaylord on Tuesday.