Last year, three STA fall sports qualified for State. This year, however, only two are still competing in the postseason.

Cross Country:

The cross country season is still in progress after STA placed third at Districts Saturday at Raymore-Peculiar High School. According to cross country coach Karen Moran, in order to advance to the State tournament the team must finish in the top four at both Districts and Sectionals. In order to advance as individuals, the runners must place in the top 30 runners in both Districts and Sectionals.

The cross country team performed well in meets throughout the season, according to Moran. The team won the Liberty Invitational in September and placed fourth at the Kansas City Metro Meet Oct. 4.

“Placing fourth [in the Kansas City Metro Meet] was especially impressive,” Moran said. “Two of the teams that finished ahead of us were last year’s Missouri State champions and last year’s Kansas State champions.”

Varsity runner, sophomore Sarah Vickery, agrees that the team has had a successful season so far.

“Pretty much every meet we’ve finished within the top few teams,” Vickery said. “At the St. Louis, meet varsity got first and last year we only got third.”

According to Moran, the team has also struggled. Varsity runner, freshman Lindsey Valdivez, broke her foot in the third meet.

“[Lindsey breaking her foot] kind of shook the team,” Vickery said. “We recovered pretty smoothly, though.”

According to Vickery, the team has high hopes for the upcoming Sectional and possibly State meets.

“We definitely want to go to State,” Vickery said. “Hopefully we’ll finish in the top two or three at Sectionals and the top four at State.”

Golf:

The golf team’s season ended with a match against Pembroke Hill Oct. 11. However, varsity players senior Madalyne Bird and junior Alexis Buford advanced and participated in the individual State tournament Oct. 18 and 19.

According to Buford, in order to advance to the individual tournament, a golfer must place in the top 15 at both Districts and Sectionals. In the State tournament, Buford placed 44 and Bird placed 11.

Overall, Buford believes the team had a successful season but hopes that next year, the team will advance a bit further.

“I was very happy [with how the season ended],” Buford said. “I wish everyone could have gone to State though. It would have been a lot of fun, but I was still happy. Next year, hopefully the team wil go [to State].”

Volleyball:

The volleyball team finished 16-7 in the regular season and hopes to continue a winning record in the post season, according to varsity player freshman Cristina DeZeeuw.

“Our first priority is to win Districts then Sectionals,” DeZeeuw said. “Our ultimate goal is to make it to State, though.”

According to DeZeeuw, the team has performed well all season, especially during an especially tough week.

“We had this one week where we played St. James [Academy] and a bunch of other tough schools and we played really well,” DeZeeuw said. “We even beat Lee’s Summit West that week.”

The varsity volleyball team plays Notre Dame de Sion tomorrow in the District semifinal. STA beat Sion in straight sets earlier in the season but according to DeZeeuw, they do not want to get overconfident.

“We are going one game at a time,” DeZeeuw said. “If we beat [Sion], then we’ll focus on the District final but we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves.”

Softball:

The softball team finished the season 11-10 and lost at Districts to Notre Dame de Sion High School on Oct. 7. The team beat Sion twice during the season but lost in the third match up 3-2.

“I could feel it,” varsity softball player, junior Krissy Bryde said. “Something wasn’t right that day. Maybe we were too cocky but it is a lot harder than people think to beat a team three times a row.”

The first time STA played Sion, STA won 18-3 and the second time STA won 13-2. According to Bryde, after these results, the District loss was extremely disapointing and surprising.

“I tried not to fall over [after we lost],” Bryde said. “I felt like it wasn’t over.”

According to Bryde, the team performed well throughout the season, especially on senior night when STA played Smithville High School.

“Everyone was really pumped up,” Bryde said. “We had eight seniors so it was do or die.”

Bryde does not want the loss of the varsity seniors to negatively effect next year’s team.

“Even though we are losing a lot of good players, I don’t want the team to think we aren’t going to be good [next year],” Bryde said. ” I heard we are getting a few good freshmen, so we’ll see what happens.”

Check out Katie McComb’s story for a summary of the tennis season.