Awaiting the referee’s call, senior Sophie Saxton anticipates her 19th assist of the game against Pleasant Hill High School on Sept 7. As the referee points towards the home side, she jumps and hugs her fellow teammate Megan Burdge as her family in the stands goes wild. She had finally achieved her 1,000th assist of her high school volleyball career.
Counting these assists and preparing for the game was not as easy as it may sound. Saxton and her family would keep count during games to make sure she had the correct number.
“I begged [Coach] Taylor to submit the Hudl stats and made sure they were mine,” Saxton said. “I even went so far back to past seasons and watched full games and made sure I had the correct number.”
To celebrate, Saxton’s mom planned much more than just an announcement. She had her whole family come out, signs for each person, a golden ball saying 1000, and even individual number t-shirts spelling out 1000 for four of her family members to surprise Saxton.
“I didn’t know all the stuff she was planning, but I was really nervous before the game because I was worried that it wasn’t going to happen,” Saxton said. “Everyone in my family and the coaches that meant a lot to me were there, and I didn’t want to make them come out for nothing.”
As the game began, one by one, assist after assist, the remaining number of assists everyone was counting down from reached one. Junior Sophie Falk passed the ball to Saxton, and she set Burdge on the outside and she slammed the ball into the floor.
“It was just so much anticipation to see if Megan hit it off the block or not, so we were just waiting and waiting,” Saxton said. “When it was awarded our point, we just had a giant bear hug in the middle of the huddle.”
The other team tried to call the ball out, but the referee overruled the objection and said that the other team’s block touched her hit. The entire gym went wild. Coach Taylor Kangethe called a time-out and celebrated the momentous achievement.
“It was just super fun and I was just really happy,” Saxton said. “I would have been happy if anyone had gotten the kill but it being Megan was a little bit more special to me.”
As athletic director Kate Pilgreen announced her accomplishment, the whole gym went wild. Everyone was cheering for her, hugging her, and praising all of her hard work over the past four years.
“I wanted it to be Megan that had the kill because she was the other senior,” said Saxton. “With everything that we had been through the last four years in volleyball, it would have made it that much more special.
