Bucks kept buying in after slow start, now look to make history
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Heading into the season, Bucktail senior Matti Mason was disappointed by the team's projected outlook. Due to key departures, even when combated by promise, the campaign was coined a rebuild year before it had even begun, and that's a tough pill to swallow for a senior looking to close out her last hoorah on a high note.
But although the year began as expected, as the Bucks lost five of their first eight and endured back-to-back blowouts through Week 3, Mason and her ten non-senior teammates kept working hard in practice and believing they could make the most of what they had. Things would start to click in the blink of an eye, and with a stretch of strong performances validating that belief, the desire to prosper turned into confidence.
When discussing what was the key to their surge forward, Mason pointed to their loss to Sullivan as the turning point, where the gears really began to turn. A loss is a loss, but Bucktail had just battled one of the best teams in District 4 Class A all the way to a ten-inning international tiebreaker.
More notably, it gave the team more data points to build upon.
"It hurt our feelings; I'll just say it. But it pushed us. Then the next game, we beat (Moshannon Valley) by one," said Mason. "So, it just keeps pushing us to work harder because losing is the only way you can become better."
That win against the Black Knights kicked off the team's best stretch of the season, one that hasn't quite settled down and is currently still alive. They'd win six of their last seven games, defeat a tough Muncy squad vying for a playoff spot in a chaotic, neck-and-neck affair and continue shattering barriers from there.
Against Montgomery in the District 4 Class A semifinals, a vastly talented squad that had beaten the Bucks twice, the team put their best foot forward, holding the Red Raiders to their second lowest scoring output (2) and seeing its heavy hitters make multiple big plays to pull off the win. That victory showed what it was capable of, and while it struggled in the ensuing final, falling to Northeast Bradford 9-0, the pride from that loss hadn't evaporated.
"I'm proud of us. We did really good on Saturday," said Mason. "I think this loss (against NEB), as much as it sucks because we wanted to three-peat, will actually help us for Monday because now we're out for blood and we'll work as hard as we can."
There's a lot Mason and Bucktail's coaches and players give credit to when discussing the team turning the tide.
A big part of turning the season around has been the younger players buying in and enacting their coaches, Mason and the juniors' advice. From freshman Carrie Ditty at the mound to other first-year starters such as Hayleigh Dent and Rebekah Conway - also a freshman, the entire team has grown confident, and it's shown in their recent success.
"We have a really young squad, so I'm impressed with how much they're working on stuff and listening. You can't coach people to listen," said Mason. "I'm a senior so usually they're scared, but now they're starting to listen and take tips, and it's awesome because then next year, they're just going to continue to grow."
Another innate aspect of their competitive nature has been their resilience.
Midway through the season when the team was still struggling, they could've dropped their heads and called it a day. But as mentioned earlier, the hard work never stopped. And when push came to shove in its tougher matchups, it kept fighting till it came out on top.
"We started 3-5, 4-6 and they could have given up and threw in the towel, but they kept working," said Bucktail head coach Mike Poorman on his players following the district title loss. "Just to be in this game today is a testament to all the girls' hard work, staying with it and just trying to progress throughout the year."