Written by Lily Jeffries | This is the first year the EMF Bobcats have attended the Pioneer Conference. This conference has helped the volleyball team out a lot with playing some teams we have never seen. Coach Fousek stated, “It was a good tournament for us and we were able to get a good win against a good Diller-Odell team and unfortunately we didn’t finish the way we wanted to but we were able to learn and grow from the experiences.” The EMF Bobcats scored 2-0 against Diller-Odell. Kaydence Haase, a sophomore on the team, mentioned that, “It was a good experience to compete against better teams.” After the Bobcats played Diller-Odell, they took on the Johnson Brock Eagles and took a tough loss going 3-2. They fought until the end, but just came up short losing 4-15 in the fifth set. Even though they lost the Bobcats know that they have a lot to improve on going into Sub-Districts. The team thinks that the rest of the season is gonna go pretty good hoping to make it to a district final, and then to state. That has always been one of their bigger goals, so to accomplish that would be a good and fun experience for them. 

Written by Savana Krupicka | On Monday, the Lady Bobcats took on the Deshler Dragons in the first round of sub-district. They took them to 4 sets, but unfortunately could not pull through. After talking to Coach Fousek, she explained how the Bobcats competed well with Deshler, but were just unable to find a kill when they needed them. Kiley Oldehoft, a sophomore on the team, explained that she thought the team struggled with putting a ball down because of their defense. Fousek also explained her thoughts on the overall season,“We had a lot of ups and downs in terms of winning and losing, but I am really proud of the girls and the commitment they made to start building a new culture for the EMF Volleyball Program.” Going into next year, the Bobcats will be losing two seniors from Exeter-Milligan, Savana Krupicka and Malorie Staskal. Coach Fousek said that both seniors did alot for the team, and other team members will need to step up in more ways than one. There is a good group of eight graders coming up next year which she feels good about. Overall, she is looking forward to continuing to build on what we were able to accomplish this season. This year since combining the two schools, there have been so many memorable moments for the team. One specific moment that really stood out to Coach and so many other players was when the Bobcats came back from 17-24 to end up winning against Diller-Odell at the Conference tournament.Overall, the Bobcats ended the season with a 17-12 record, and we are excited to see them play next season.