The 2016 6A Volleyball state champions woke up Saturday with a pressure they had never felt before.

The Jonesboro High School volleyball team headed to the convention center in Hot Springs on Oct. 28 to play its last match of the season.

“I had to perform good since I played so well last year,” sophomore middle blocker Mikayla Johnson said.

The team practiced every day for two hours for a week leading up to the state finals, and two times the day of the match.

Johnson reached 300 kills before the final game. However, that was not her main goal.

“Nothing else mattered but state,” Johnson said.

Senior Magan Wicker said her biggest goal was to make it back to state.

Wicker achieved her goal, but the final outcome was not what the team had in mind.

They played against Greenwood, a team they had beaten last year at state in the semifinals.

Greenwood was out to get them.

Although the “Dawg Pound” failed to show up and support, the girls on the bench “gave off good energy and helped build our momentum,” Wicker said.

Jonesboro battled for the state title against Greenwood for four sets. (1-3)

The Hurricane fell short after four close matches.

Wicker had just played her last high school volleyball game.

“Everything was sad, everything Coach (Craig) Cummings was saying. I just wanted to walk out,” Johnson said.

No one was filled with last year’s happy tears.

Although overcoming a loss is difficult, Johnson said she deals with losses by “thinking about what I could’ve done better and what I can work on for the next game.”

Johnson still has two years to achieve her goal of winning a state championship, but for Wicker, her high school volleyball career is over.

Fortunately, she signed to play at Henderson State University and will continue her volleyball career for four more years.

“I didn’t want to play college volleyball until the state finals, and I thought, ‘I don’t want to give it up yet. I’m not ready,’” Wicker said.