After a first round loss to top ranked Waxahachie in the UIL volleyball playoffs, senior Payton Cerny hugged teammate Emily Huynh with tears streaming down her face.

“I was thinking about just how quick my time on the team flew by, and how I’ll miss playing with them and playing high school volleyball,” Cerny said.

The team finished the regular season 24-20, and a district record of 9-5. They finished fourth in district, barely clinching a playoff spot.

“I thought we didn’t play our best, but we still competed – kind of the same issue we had all season, half the team played the match of their lives, but the other half didn’t,” Head Coach Eric Miracle said.

Richardson struggled to slow down the Waxahachie offense. They were ranked eighth in the state and known for their TCU-bound hitter, Audrey Nalls, and their offensive IQ.

“They did what we tried to get our team to do all year which is hit shots, and be smart. You hit the ball where this particular defense is vulnerable, you tip the ball strategically, you don’t have to go up and hammer every ball. You have to play smart, and they did,” Miracle said.

The team hopes to improve next year, even with two of their stat leaders, Payton Cerny and Natalie Perdue, graduating. Cerny and Perdue both set new school records with each reaching over 1,000 kills.

“I think we could have won a few more tight games this season, but overall we did good,” Perdue said. “I’m looking forward to playing college volleyball at Arkansas next year,”

Miracle said changes were coming to the style of the team’s play.

“We are going to be defensive and ball control oriented and not [play] so overwhelming offensively, but we are going to play better together, I can tell you that,” Miracle said.