A year ago, Missouri became the 47th state in the country to adopt the best-of-five format in high school girls volleyball.

The Montgomery County Wildcats loved the idea.

“What I like about it is we get to play more,” MCHS coach Rachel Leu said.

But the Wildcats are never happy to lose a five-game match, especially one on Oct. 25 against the Centralia Panthers in a Class 3, District 7 semifinal match at Ballew & Snell Court. Centralia ended MCHS’ season with a come-from-behind, 25-20, 19-25, 24-26, 25-10, 15-8 win.

“This game was great,” MCHS senior Makayla Beaver said. “Everybody fought for it. We all laid it all out on the court. It just turned out to not be our night. Centralia came out and played really hard. It hurts that it’s the last game and you won’t be able to ever play again.”

The Wildcats finished their season at 10-14-3. They lost in the district semifinals for the third year in a row.

After the match, Leu had tears in her eyes. She was sad that her team’s season ended in heartbreaking fashion.

“We made Centralia play hard and we made them earn it,” Leu said. “It hurts even more when you lose that way. But I’m so proud that they came out, they tried their hardest and they put it all out on the floor. I don’t feel like there was any point where we go back and think, ‘Oh, we should have done something different.’ We felt that the girls had a game plan and they stuck to it. It got us into that position to win. Unfortunately, it wasn’t in our favor tonight.”

Centralia coach Sofija Lippmann applauded the Wildcats’ effort. On Oct. 5, MCHS lost to the Panthers in three games in a regular season match at home.

“I knew coming in here that Montgomery had all of these athletic kids and good kids,” Lippmann said. “They would fight and go for every ball.”

Centralia, the No. 2 seed in the five-team district tournament, ended its season at 20-8 after losing to top-seeded Hallsville in the championship match. The Panthers finished with their first 20-win season in seven years.

“They’re a little bit older than we are,” Leu said. “They have a lot of seniors. We’re a little bit of a younger team. So they got a little bit more experience. They’re able to keep their heads a little bit cooler when the pressure comes on. Hats off to them.”

The Wildcats, the No. 3 seed, were trailing 24-23 in the third game before coming back with a 3-0 run to take a two games to one lead in the match. They scored their three points on a Centralia serving error, a service ace by senior Ella Cobb and a kill by junior Olivia Shaw.

“One of my favorite things about this team is we always fight,” Leu said. “We could never count ourselves out.”

The fourth game was tied at 3-3 before Centralia went on a 22-7 run to tie the match at two apiece. In the fifth game, the Panthers broke a 3-3 tie by going on a 12-5 run, including a kill by Hannah Danielson that ended the match.

“In that last point, it didn’t go our way,” Beaver said. “It was a really good hit and we couldn’t make it up. It was kind of heartbreaking to work so hard and then fall away.”

Beaver, Cobb and senior Sarah Cluver played their final high school volleyball matches for the Wildcats. During their four years with the program, the Wildcats won 50 matches and four Eastern Missouri Conference championships.

“They played hard and they played tough,” Leu said. “They came up with some good passes. They were more on the defensive side of things for us and they were really on it. They were much better prepared than the first time we played Centralia. They were ready to go. I thought they put in a solid performance.”