Senior sendoff: Hiser, Sebesta, Whalen honored as spikers top Lusk in home finale

Shyla Whalen has been playing volleyball with Autumn Hiser and Olivia Sebesta since fourth grade and has formed lasting relationships with them that she will long cherish. They were honored last Friday before their home match with Lusk on senior night and Whalen isn’t quite sure where four years of time went.
“It doesn’t feel like it should already be the end of our season, it has gone by so fast,” Whalen said. “It snuck up on all of us I think.”
It’s never easy for seniors to say goodbye to their respective athletic teams and the teammates and coaches that helped make the experience every bit of what it was.
Players build relationships, battle through adversity, learn from one another and experience the many ups and downs of being a high school student. Luckily for Whalen and her fellow seniors, there’s still a few weeks left before they have to say their final farewells.
“The relationships that I have built with the people in this program over the past four years has been such a blessing,” Whalen said. “They are all really great people, coaches and athletes. We have all worked hard to establish the kind of team environment that we thought this program needed.”
That team environment and relationship extends far beyond just Hiser and Sebesta. After all, every one of her teammates and coaches have become family.
On their special night, Whalen and the Herders outlasted Lusk in four sets, 25-13, 23-25, 25-14, 25-16. It was their second win over the Lady Tigers this season.
Against quadrant foe Pine Bluffs the following day, Glenrock played their toughest match of the season. After losing in four sets the previous time they matched up and in two sets the time before that, the two teams battled it out to five sets. In the final set, the Lady Herders fell 14-16, but were immensely proud with how they dug deep against one of the conference’s best teams.
Glenrock is now 17-9 and 2-3 in the conference and with just one match remaining before the regional tournament on their home court, Whalen is reminded by the bond she’s built and continues to share with her teammates.
“My teammates are some of my best friends and I know if I needed them, they would be there in a heartbeat, and they know I would do the same.”